Circle of Death
by The Offbeat Alchemist
Summary: In a quiet Illinois suburb, five teens on the verge of graduation start thinking about their futures. Life doesn't go quite as planned when Fred Krueger is revived, just in time for the high school Halloween party.
1. Chapter 1

**A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death**

**Prologue: The Darker Side of History**

"So who did you get?"

"I'm not saying."

"Oh, come on. Why not?"

"Because it's too gross!"

Kelly Anderson stopped searching for her math book and peered around her locker door. Digging in the locker to the right of hers was a slender girl with dark curls tumbling down her back. She brushed one away from her face as she rapidly searched through her own locker. There wasn't much reason to hurry, though; the bell wasn't scheduled to ring for another two minutes.

Leaning against the next locker over was a sandy-haired boy dressed in torn jeans and a T-shirt that read 'Out of my mind, back in five minutes'. He was grinning at the pretty African-American playfully.

"Come on," he urged again. "Why won't you tell me?"

Kelly finally located her math book and closed her locker. "Don't bother, Aaron," she told the lean boy with a smirk. "I already asked, and if she won't tell _me_, then you don't have a chance."

Aaron Stevens thrust his lower lip out and pouted like a five-year-old, but only for a second. He darted around and leaned against the locker on Kelly's left, grin back in place. "Okay, who did _you_ get, then?"

Seeing that he had switched targets, the other girl relaxed and took her time securing her locker door. "Why do we even need to do this?" she asked as she spun the dial. "It's history class, for pity's sake. We should be studying historical figures, not serial killers."

"Serial killers _are_ historical figures, Tanya," Aaron pointed out. "And having to study one in order to create a detailed report is the most interesting assignment I've had all year."

Tanya said nothing; her shudder of disgust spoke volumes. "I got Ted Bundy," said Kelly.

"Sweet," said Aaron approvingly. "I got Ed Gein."

Tanya shuddered again and hugged a textbook to her chest. "How come Professor Davis handed out our, uh, figures of historical interest at random instead of letting us choose who to study ourselves?"

Aaron shrugged. "I guess to keep us from digging up someone less...colorful."

A locker on the other side of the hallway closed with a bang, and a girl with black hair hanging to her waist marched over to the group with a lopsided grin on her face. "I don't think there's such thing as serial killer light, kiddo."

Though the willowy teen stood almost a head taller than him, Aaron returned her grin with ease. "Well, if it isn't our own little angel of death," he said, eyeing her dark attire. The only color breaking up the monochrome black was a glittering cross hanging from her neck.

"Aaron, don't you and Rowena start," Tanya warned. "We don't have time for you two to gleefully rip each other a new one before the bell rings."

But Rowena just smiled, looking pleased about something. "I got Elizabeth Bathory," she announced with a touch of pride. "AKA The Blood Countess."

"Nice," Aaron exclaimed, raising his hand above his head.

Rowena lightly high-fived him before turning around. "That just leaves you," she said, addressing a muscular brunette who was just joining them. "What blood-soaked maniac did the prof saddle you with?"

The blue-eyed teen shrugged and absently straightened the collar of his crisp white shirt. "Someone named Frederick Charles Krueger."

Aaron started to extend his high-five hand again, then withdrew it with a puzzled frown. "Who?"

"Professor Davis likes mixing obscure names in with the better known ones," said Kelly.

Aaron shrugged one shoulder, uninterested. "You've more important things to worry about anyway, right, Captain Craig?"

Craig rolled his eyes skyward. "Don't remind me. Coach wants us to practice an extra hour later. He says it's to help break in the new guy, but I think he just wants to see how far we can go before we break, period."

"Speaking of breaking things in," put in Tanya, "I just got a new camera the other day. I'm dying to try it out, but now I have to go dig through the messy history of a multiple murderer."

She sighed dramatically and started walking gloomily away. "I'll come help you dig after school," Kelly called after her.

"I don't know what she's so bugged about," said Aaron as Kelly slipped an arm around Craig. "Every name the prof handed out is either long dead or serving multiple life sentences in a maximum security prison."

Craig nodded absently. "Totally. It's not like we're in danger of any of them suddenly coming after us."

"She's just sensitive," said Rowena. "All artists are."

Before anyone could say anything else the bell began to ring, and the four of them split up and hurried to the next class.


	2. Chapter 2

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 1: Making the Grade**

"So, what'd you get?"

Kelly peered around her locker door and laughed. "Didn't we do this on Monday?"

Aaron ran a hand through his shaggy hair and grinned at her. "Yeah, but I was asking _who_ everyone got. Now I want to know _what_ you got. As in which grade."

Kelly took a moment to straighten the books on her locker shelf. "I bet you did better than the rest of us," Aaron went on. "You're the resident psychologist, after all."

"Don't be silly," said Kelly mildly. "I'm only studying it on the side, unofficially."

"Hey, don't sell yourself short. We all know your brains aren't exactly at full potential right now, not when you spend the afternoon doing splits in a mini-skirt."

Kelly's heart sank; she had cheerleading practice that day. "That's only until high school is over," she reminded him.

Aaron nodded and grew quiet. Kelly absently smoothed imaginary wrinkles out of her pink sweater until the others joined them. Craig looked rather sullen, Rowena had her head held particularly high, and Tanya was grinning broadly.

"I was really worried for a while, but I managed to pull out a B," she announced happily.

"That's great," said Kelly, smiling.

"All thanks to your keen insight into the human mind, I'll bet," added Aaron.

Kelly flushed. "Oh, come on."

"He's right," Tanya insisted, giving her a quick hug. "I couldn't have made it through this horrible assignment without you."

"It wasn't so bad," Kelly decided. "Though I would have liked to have spent more time digging into the psychological issues of some of the women who showed up to watch the trial. What sort of person goes to court deliberately looking like someone's murder victims?"

"Another victim," said Aaron promptly. "The kind who live like one every day of their life."

"Obviously," agreed Rowena.

Aaron glanced at her. "Have you been abusing the flat iron again?"

Rowena blinked. "What?"

"You're splitting, babe. You should probably hold off on the dye for a while, too."

Tanya snorted, and Kelly smiled to herself; Rowena had been dying her hair black for so long only her mother could remember the original color. "Anyway," said Kelly, "I got an A."

Rowena tossed her long hair, making the silvery highlights shimmer in the florescent light. "A+ for me," she said nonchalantly. "Though it wasn't hard, considering the subject I was given."

"I'll say," said Aaron, wrinkling his nose. "Did she really use the fresh blood of young girls as a substitute for bath water?"

"There's no real evidence to support that twisted image," declared Rowena with another toss of her hair, "so I'd say the idea came out of someone's head later on. No one is clear about how many victims there really were, either; the numbers range from around thirty to over six-hundred."

"Uh, that's a pretty big difference," said Aaron dryly.

"No kidding. What really struck me about the entire affair was how many people knew what was going on and didn't say a word about it, either because they were afraid or because they were being paid to stay quiet. Further proof that if you're rich enough, you can get away with pretty much anything, murder included."

Aaron nodded absently before his usual lopsided grin returned. "Speaking of a real money-maker, did you know that Ed Gein was the inspiration for _Psycho_?"

Rowena rolled her eyes. "Yes, Aaron. But only because that's about the fifth time you've mentioned it this week."

Aaron continued to grin at her. "Sorry. Weird as it sounds, I had fun with this project. Mostly because it got me a B+," he added, grin widening. "How about you, big guy?"

Craig jerked his head up like he had been startled out of deep thought. "What? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

"Your guy, dude. What did he do?"

"Oh." Craig shrugged, looking distracted. "Standard stuff; kidnapping, mutilations, murders. Had a particular fondness for minors. You know, kids our age and younger."

Tanya grimaced. "Ew."

"Anything else?" wondered Aaron.

"Not really," said Craig, shrugging again. "Though it got pretty wild after they finally caught him, now that I think about it."

"They electrocuted _and_ gave him lethal injection?" asked Aaron eagerly.

"Uh, not exactly..."

Rowena rolled her green eyes as she nudged the slim boy in the ribs. "What's wrong with you is no small thing."

"As I was saying," Craig said loudly, wanting to finish his story. "Someone screwed up when they arrested him, so they dismissed the trial and let him walk. Naturally that made the parents of the murdered kids pretty upset, so they tracked him down and barbecued him like a hamburger on Labor Day."

Aaron was impressed. "Trippy, dude. Trippy."

"All this happened in some little town in Ohio," Craig added, with a sidelong glance at Tanya. "That's two whole states away from here."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "I know my geography, Craig."

"Your report got a good grade, at least," Kelly said hopefully.

"A C+," said Craig flatly.

"Don't worry, I get those all the time," said Aaron.

"You're not captain of the basketball team," snapped Craig. "If my GPA drops like it did a few months ago, my dad's going to be up my butt about the athletic scholarship again. He won't give me a moment of peace until I'm 'back on track', as he says. I can't go through that again."

Kelly quickly reached out and slid an arm around his waist. "It'll be okay," she said soothingly. "He just hired you a new private tutor, didn't he?"

"Yeah," said Craig sourly, "but I have no idea how he's paying for it. He's still broke from all the equipment he's bought me, and the gym membership he insisted I need, and the..."

He trailed off, not caring to name all of the ways his father was trying to mold his only son into a basketball super-star. Kelly rubbed his arm comfortingly. "We're all here for you, and I'll be right there with you at every game," she promised.

"She's right," said Aaron, looking serious for once. "If we held together after what happened last time, we can handle anything."

Rowena absently curled a coal-black lock around her finger, her expression thoughtful. "We should all take a break tonight. Let's meet at the usual spot and have a little fun for a change."

"Sounds like a plan," said Aaron. "I have to go this way now," he added, turning down the left-hand hallway. "Geometry calls."

Rowena indicated to where the hallway branched to the right. "We're this way," she reminded Craig. "And try not to stress so much. It's bad for your health."

After lightly pecking Kelly's cheek, Craig followed Rowena and disappeared into the jumble of high school students. Tanay and Kelly shared physics, so they continued walking together. The hall in front of the classroom was pretty crowded, so they paused to wait for the clump of students to move on.

"They never found her, did they?"

Kelly gave a start and spun around. She quickly relaxed when she saw the middle-aged, balding man standing behind her. "Oh, hi, Principal Adwell."

"Never found who, sir?" asked Tanya calmly.

The stout principal absently patted his growing middle as he nodded at the nearby bulletin board. "That girl. A shame, really. Good student. Her mother was completely devastated, I hear."

Kelly nodded mutely as she stared, unwillingly, at the small poster tacked to the board. The photo between the worn edges of the page was of a girl who didn't look like she could be much older than fourteen, but Kelly knew better. She was sixteen, a year younger than herself and her friends. The photo was black and white, but Kelly knew that her hair was dirty blond. Her skin tone was between average and light, though in the photo it looked closer to skim milk. The girl's expression was neutral, neither smiling nor frowning.

The poster gave her the chills. Not because of the photo, but because of the single word printed beneath it, in large blocky letters.

'MISSING'.

"A shame," repeated Principal Adwell. "She was a math whiz, wasn't she?"

Kelly shrugged wordlessly; she wanted to look away, but she couldn't.

"She was a dancer," said Tanya softly.

"Oh."

The rotund man patted his belly again. "Well, I've things to do. Don't dawdle in the halls, girls."

Tanya politely told him goodbye while Kelly continued to stare at the poster. Her eyes wandered to the words written beneath the giant 'MISSING'.

'Felicity Masters: Last seen on July 4th. If you have any information, please call...'

The number was obscured by the edge of the poster, which had torn free from the tack and curled upward. It wouldn't be long before someone took it down and discarded it, along with the attempt to find the young girl. The police gave up searching two months after she was reported missing; the poster had somehow lingered for two months more.

Tanya touched Kelly's shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah..."

It was a scary thought, knowing that anyone from her school could disappear suddenly, and without a trace. Even scarier was that so little had been done to locate her. Kelly shivered; would the same thing happen if one of them disappeared? Felicity had been a scholarship student who rode the bus from another part of town, but that didn't make any difference...did it?

Tanya suddenly nudged her. "Come on. We have to get to class."

Kelly nodded and let Tanya pull her away. Though she knew it wasn't the right way to feel about it, Kelly knew she would be relieved when the poster was finally removed.


	3. Chapter 3

**A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death**

**Chapter 2: Uncertain Futures**

After school, Kelly sat down in front of her dresser and studied her own reflection in the mirror. She pushed back a section of her sun-kissed blond hair, frowned at what she saw, then grabbed the cordless phone sitting on her dresser.

She absently pushed back her bangs as she dialed Tanya's number. "Are you busy?" she asked when Tanya came on the line.

"Not anymore," sighed Tanya. "I _was_ photographing my favorite subject, but she got bored and ran off."

Kelly grinned in spite of herself; trying to keep Rowena still was like trying to keep the moon from rising. "It's amazing you hold on to her as long as you do. Out of curiosity, why bother?"

"We have a deal going," explained Tanya. "She let's me test new equipment on her, and I pay her back by letting her paint, sculpt, or paper mache me. Besides, she's a great model."

Kelly couldn't argue. Willowy Rowena, with her perfect skin and striking green eyes, was clearly the kind of girl the camera loved. Most thought the same thing about shapely, creamy-skinned Tanya, but the shy teen preferred staying behind the lens.

"As long as you're free, can you come over? My roots are showing again."

There was a pause. "There isn't anything wrong with your real hair, you know."

Kelly didn't answer as she glanced at a photo tacked to the side of her mirror. It was a picture of the high school cheerleading squad, and she was standing in the middle of the row, proudly sporting school colors and a beauty queen-worthy smile. "We both know you're never going to live up to the image your mother has in her head," Tanya said quietly. "You should really stop trying and just be you for a change."

"It's more than that," Kelly said quickly. "Being blonde, blue-eyed, and being on the squad...it's everything she ever wanted for herself but never got."

"Uh huh. You don't need to study psychology to know that living vicariously through one's child isn't healthy. For either of you."

Kelly tried not to, but her eyes were inevitably drawn to the stack of text books resting on her night stand. "It's only until high school is over," she ventured.

"Have you told her that? Or that you want a degree and maybe even your own practice after college?"

"No..."

"You're going to have to tell her eventually, or you're going to snap."

"I will," Kelly promised.

"When?"

"Soon. I swear."

"You better."

"Anyway, are you coming over or not? You know it's a pain to do this by myself."

Tanya sighed a typical Tanya sigh, but Kelly knew she had already decided to come. For as long as she could remember, Tanya was the one person she could always count on, no matter what.

"I'll be there in a minute," she finally agreed. "But this is the last time," she warned.

Kelly laughed. "Right," she said, and hung up.

* * *

Craig absently kicked a dented can out of his way as he walked around to the back of the gas station. He wanted to stay inside where he wouldn't be seen, but his lurking had made the cashier nervous and she told him to buy something or leave. He left, but he didn't want to go home.

He didn't want to tell his father that his grades were starting to slip again. He tried and tried, but he knew he just wasn't smart enough to keep them up. Not up where his father wanted them, anyway.

He gave the can another savage kick before sitting on a rusted metal crate near the brick wall. He fished into the inner pocket of his jacket, pulled out a small bottle and took a long drink.

"Easy, dude, you know what that shit does to you."

Craig blandly returned the bottle to his jacket. "You need something, Aaron?"

The lean boy shrugged, his hands in his pockets. "Just worried about you. I know you're upset, and I know what you do when you're upset."

"I'm fine," Craig muttered.

"No, you're not."

Aaron pushed another crate over with his foot and sat down. "You're stressing out again. Just like when your dad thought you wouldn't make captain."

Craig scowled fiercely. "He wouldn't get away with treating me like this if my mom was still around."

"Hey, don't do that to yourself, or her. You know she fought with everything she had to keep you and your sister. Your dad had a better lawyer. That's all."

Craig knew that was true. His mother had all the love in the world, but his father had the money, so he was the one with custody of his two children.

"Where is she now, anyway? Your sister, I mean."

"Colorado," said Craig glumly. "She'd move to the moon, if she could. Wish I could go with her."

Aaron suddenly grinned, a sign he was about to lighten the mood, or attempt to, at least. Craig doubted he would succeed, but he appreciated the attempt as well as the optimism.

"It's always good to have dreams, dude. But you might want to aim a little lower, for now."

The slim teen looked at him expectantly, and Craig realized Aaron was asking what he wanted to do, if it were up to him. He stared blankly at the side of a nearby building; leave it to Aaron to present a question he had never thought about before. His father had planned his future from the day he was born, literally.

His father took one look at him and said, "He's going to grow up tall and lanky, just like me! He'll rule the courts, no mistake."

Craig had the video to prove it. He didn't want that future, but once it was taken away, he was left with a huge blank. What else could he do?

"If you ask me, you look more like a football player," Aaron joked.

Craig frowned at the idea, but Aaron had a point; Craig had filled out a lot more than expected, and he had stopped growing just shy of what most people considered tall. He wasn't small, but he couldn't imagine being knocked around a football field. "Can't we just stay away from sports?"

Aaron thought for a moment. "Can you cook?"

Despite his dark mood, Craig started to laugh. "What, you trying to snare me into taking your sister's place after she gets married? I can't really picture myself in your family's kitchen. Or in an apron."

"Hey, you're like family to us," Aaron told him seriously. "My mom even said she'd be happy to give you a job at the restaurant. She thinks having you around will be a good influence for me," he added with a grin.

"Oh sure," joked Craig. "I'll roast chickens five nights a week while I pay my way through college. I'll be able to marry Kelly in no time."

"Hey, if that's what you want, dude. Just say the word."

Craig's smile faded. He was only joking, but Aaron was seriously trying to offer him an alternative to the carefully coordinated plan Craig's father had laid out. And it wasn't long before he turned eighteen...he was free to do whatever he wanted after that, no matter how upset it made his father. If he stopped playing ball and started cooking, his father would probably disown him.

The thought made Craig grin; that sounded pretty good about now. "I'm not really sure what I want, but I'll keep you posted, okay?"

Aaron lightly slapped his shoulder. "You do that," he instructed, standing up. "I gotta run...I'm on double-duty while sis picks out her gown and junk. Don't forget, we're meeting later."

"I won't."

They walked to the street together, where Aaron waved and took off running. After thinking about it for a moment, Craig decided not to go home until later. He wasn't supposed to meet the others until after dark, but that was fine. He didn't have many talents, but staying out of sight was one of his best.


	4. Chapter 4

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 3: The Bonds of Friendship**

Beyond the rows of suburban homes, convenience stores and gas stations was a rough section of land, let go by the owners and not often seen by human eyes. The gritty, broken down factory that occupied the land was old and condemned, and no one came anywhere near it anymore. Which made it the perfect place for teens looking to escape the pressures of high school and family to hang out.

Behind the factory was an open field; unkept, litter-filled and dusty. Between the patches of dirt were patches of grass, already turning brown and crisp in the autumn air. The field itself was about an acre long, and beyond it was a thick wooded area that stretched for nearly two miles before the highway cut through it. Everything felt isolated and rustic, a secluded patch of nature tucked away in the middle of suburbia.

Never one to pass up an opportunity, Tanya pulled out her camera shortly after she arrived and began snapping shots of the sunset. Kelly went over to a flat area of dirt and began placing dried branches and old newspaper in the fire ring the boys had set up over the summer. She then set her duffel bag on one of the discarded wooden beams the teens used for seats and pulled out a can of bug spray.

"It's warm for late October," Kelly commented.

Tanya took one last shot before putting her camera away again. "There's no wind," Tanya added, looking around with a pleased smile. "I don't see any bugs, either, but I'll take some of that anyway, thank you."

"Just keep that stuff away from the goodies," Aaron called as he strolled up. He set bags of snacks next to a beam and started lighting the fire.

Craig arrived next, carrying blankets in case the weather decided to turn cold. Rowena arrived last with nothing but a fringed leather bag slung over her shoulder.

Kelly was eyeing the bags Aaron was pulling out. "Aren't we a little old for s'mores?" she queried.

"Who said anything about s'mores?" said Aaron as he speared a candy bar with a barbecue fork. "I'm making hot chocolate. Literally."

The others watched as he held the fork over the fire until the chocolate began to soften, after which he stuffed the entire candy bar into his mouth.

"Smack your lips any louder," Rowena muttered, "and no one will know you from a Hampshire pig."

Aaron stopped chewing and grinned broadly, revealing chocolate-stained teeth. "Hampshire pigs look like Oreo cookies, babe."

Kelly moved over and sat next to Craig. "You feeling any better?" she asked softly.

Craig shrugged slightly. "I guess."

Rowena suddenly cleared her throat, a signal that she wanted the others to pay attention to her. Kelly turned from Craig and looked at her. So did Tanya, but Aaron was busy melting another candy bar. Rowena nudged him in the ribs.

"Know what this is?" she asked, holding up a bright blue object for everyone to see. It glittered and sparkled in the firelight.

"It looks like a gemstone," commented Kelly.

"It's an aquamarine," confirmed Tanya.

"Is it valuable?" wondered Aaron. He eyed the inch-long stone with interest.

"It's been passed down in my family for generations, if that's what you mean," said Rowena.

Aaron leaned back like he expected the stone to bite. "Oh, great. A Madison family treasure. You can practically smell the witchy residue."

Knowing that Rowena was sensitive about her family's involvement in the occult, Kelly quickly spoke up before another argument broke out. "Why did you bring something so important?" she asked. She had known Rowena long enough to know that she didn't grab family relics without good reason.

"This is probably one of those 'nights of magical significance' she's so fond of," muttered Aaron. "Which means she probably only suggested we get together tonight so she can show us some trick or charm she just learned."

The willowy teen tossed her waist-length hair and glared at the slender smart-aleck. "You're half-right," she said coolly. "I _did_ just learn something, but I have no intention of using it for my own benefit. This is something for all of us."

Kelly glanced at Tanya, who glanced back, eyebrows raised. They both loved Rowena like a sister, but sometimes her love for her family tradition of witchcraft didn't sit well with their scientific minds.

"This is important," said Rowena loudly, looking sternly at both girls. "Our final summer vacation is over, and it won't be long before this year is over, too. After that, graduation is right around the corner. We'll never be together like this again."

Kelly slowly looked around the fire at the others; class-clown Aaron, who was staring down at his candy bag with a glum expression that looked unnatural on his face; beautiful but fierce Rowena, whose green eyes seemed to glow without aid from the firelight as she watched the other four expectantly; easy-going, thoughtful Craig, who watched the fire with longing and regret in his dark blue eyes; and smart, faithful Tanya, who had been her closest and dearest friend since they were in diapers. Was this really one of the last times all five of them would be together?

Seeing that she had their attention now, Rowena hurried on. "I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and I've decided that we need to do something to solidify our friendship forever."

"Like what?" wondered Tanya, looking genuinely interested.

"I told you, she wants to test out magic charms," said Aaron, stuffing his last candy bar into his mouth.

Rowena glared at him, her green eyes icy. "It's not a charm," she snapped. "It's a symbol of our friendship. One that won't ever break, no matter how far apart we are. And," she went on, at length, "creating it _will_ be the biggest test of my skills yet, I'll admit."

"Told you," said Aaron smugly.

"Hush," ordered Tanya. "I want to know where this is going."

Rowena displayed the gemstone again. "This is an important piece of me. I need an important piece of all of you."

A grin spread across Aaron's face, and he wiggled a pinky finger at her. "Do you prefer fingers or toes?"

Maybe it was the frosty glares Rowena kept giving Aaron, or maybe it was the breeze that started up, but Kelly suddenly felt a chill. She got up to grab a blanket before returning to her seat next to Craig. He slid his arm around her, and she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"What I mean by an important piece," said Rowena with another glare at Aaron, "is that I need something that's special to each of you. It doesn't have to be big. I'd prefer something small, in fact."

Kelly absently reached up and touched the silver chain around her neck. "This is important to me," she said softly. "I doubt it's worth much, though."

"Monetary value is irrelevant," declared Rowena. "It's the emotion and memory attached to the object that counts."

"It was a gift from my father," murmured Kelly. "The last gift he ever gave me, in fact."

Kelly's father had given her the chain shortly before leaving on a business trip he never returned from, thanks to an engine malfunction in the plane he boarded. She didn't really want to part with it, and she still wasn't sure what Rowena was up to, but the raven-haired teen held out her hand expectantly. Kelly slipped the chain over her head and draped it over Rowena's slender fingers. Rowena held it up to her eyes and nodded in approval. "This will do nicely. Thank you, Kelly."

Tanya was eyeing them both with a touch of wariness, as if she was trying to decide to shrug and hand over her treasure, or politely decline. In the end she shrugged and wiggled a ring off her finger. "This was my grandmother's," said Tanya as she handed the ring over to Rowena.

It was gold-colored and shaped like a flower, and slightly tarnished, but Kelly knew it meant a lot to Tanya. Rowena nodded again. "Excellent. You're up, boys."

Craig shrugged and leaned his head against Kelly's. Aaron suddenly stopped snacking and felt around inside his baggy T-shirt. He pulled a chain over his head and removed something from it. "This was my great-uncle's dog tag in World War II," he announced, holding it up for Rowena to see.

Rowena squinted at the silver slip of metal, looking impressed. Kelly frowned. "That sounds a little too important."

Aaron glanced at her look of disapproval and laughed jovially. "You think so? It's actually a cheap vending machine trinket my brother picked up. But he had me convinced for years that it was real."

"Why keep it if you now know otherwise?" asked Rowena dryly.

"Because my brother was the only person who could ever trick me. It reminds me of what a special guy he was."

Kelly was an only child, but she couldn't help feeling sorry for Aaron as he gazed wistfully at the twenty-five cent toy. Aaron had a big family and as a result had seen numerous funerals, but he never stopped missing his oldest brother, who died in a car accident when Aaron was ten.

"But like Kelly said, are you sure you want to part with it?" asked Rowena, her voice unusually gentle.

Aaron offered it to her wordlessly, and she slipped it into her bag with the chain and ring. After looking wistful for a second more, Aaron went back to snacking. Rowena turned to Craig. "That just leaves you."

Craig shook his head. "Sorry, the only valuable thing I have is Kelly."

The sentiment made Kelly flush, but Rowena was unimpressed. "Well, I can hardly take her home and melt her down, can I?"

Aaron almost choked on a potato chip. "You have a smelting furnace in your basement or something?"

Rowena grinned at him slyly. "You should stop over sometime. I've got things you wouldn't believe."

"I believe it," said Aaron quickly. "So please don't drag me into your dungeon of a bedroom or something."

"Like I would. And what would it matter if I did? Witches have as normal of a bedroom as the next girl."

"It's not your witchiness that worries me," muttered Aaron. "It's the fact that you're a—"

"Will the spell work without a contribution from Craig?" asked Tanya quickly, to Kelly's relief.

"Of course," sighed Rowena. "But the whole point is to take something from each of us and use them to create something else."

"Sorry," said Craig. "I just don't have anything metal that's important to me."

"It doesn't have to be metal," Rowena informed him.

"Oh."

He thought for a moment. "I have a dried flower Kelly gave me when we were kids," he ventured.

Kelly flushed again, but she smiled. "You kept that?"

"Of course."

"Good enough," said Rowena. She stood and stretched her longs limbs. "You can bring it by my house later. I'm going to take off now...take it easy, you four."

The others bid her good night, and she disappeared into the dark shadow cast by the factory. Aaron wiped his hands on his shirt and got to his feet. "I'm going to head home, too. Catch you guys later."

He cleaned up and left, and Tanya glanced at the couple sitting next to her. "I guess I better go, too. Good night, Kelly."

Kelly watched her go, then leaned her head back and gazed up at the night sky. There were no clouds, and the sea of stars shone down brightly, unhindered by the lights from town. Kelly pulled the blanket around her tighter.

"Do you really think this is it?" she asked quietly.

Craig leaned his head against hers again as he thought it over. "I don't know," he replied in a soft voice. "I really don't know what the future has in store for any of us, especially me."

Kelly nodded and leaned closer to him; she knew that he wanted to break away from the life planned out for him by his parent as badly as she did, but he didn't know how, or what would happen if he tried. It was one of the things that had brought them so close in recent years.

"I do know one thing," Craig murmured as he entwined his fingers with hers. "When it comes to you and me, no person or thing will ever break us apart. It's you and me forever, no matter what."

Kelly smiled faintly, her eyes on the dancing flames of the fire. "I sure hope so," she whispered.


	5. Chapter 5

**A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death**

**Chapter 4: Not Just a Bauble**

"Wow. That's _beautiful_."

Rowena stood in the middle of the school hallway proudly holding up her finished work for the others to see. The four of them crowded around her and studied it with fascinated eyes, particularly the girls.

"I can't believe you finished it in a week," said Kelly, a hint of awe in her voice.

Rowena was practically beaming, a rare sight on her normally stoic face. No doubt about it; the amulet was her greatest creation yet.

It had also been her greatest challenge. She started with the items given to her by Tanya, Craig and Aaron, and melted them down into a stream of silver metal, which she molded into the amulet's backing. She then took her own precious gem and set it in place, and hung the finished amulet from Kelly's chain. The intricate web of spell worked into it had been a completely different challenge, the most exhausting she had ever attempted.

But it had all been worth it; the amulet was flawless, and even more powerful than she had hoped.

Rowena snatched the amulet away as Kelly started to reach for it. "It's not just a pretty piece of jewelry," she warned. "It's an object of great power, and you need to understand that before you can touch it."

"Or what?" scoffed Aaron.

Rowena narrowed her eyes at him. "Or you might wind up in the hospital, smart guy. Shut up and listen, you might learn something."

Aaron folded his arms and glared at her skeptically, but he quieted. The others looked at her expectantly. Always glad to be the center of attention, Rowena held her head proudly and continued. "First of all, you never, _ever_, try to grab the amulet away from someone else. If you do, the magic stored inside it with push you away, and the results won't be pretty."

None of her friends looked liked they believed her, but Rowena was determined to give them all the facts. It was for their own safety, after all. "The person holding it has to hand it over willingly," she went on. "So if you want it, ask first, and let them hand it to you. If you touch it with no desire to take it, you can touch it safely. No desire, no reaction; big desire, _big_ reaction. Understand?"

"Exactly how is this supposed to benefit all of us?" asked Tanya. Her eyebrows were raised, a sure sign her scientific mind was in overdrive.

Rowena held the amulet up again, admiring how it glistened in the light. "I told you, it has great power. It can draw positive energy to whoever holds it, bringing good fortune into their life."

Aaron snorted. Rowena ignored him. "It's also surrounded with a sphere of protection, which will guard the wearer and everyone around him."

"Anything else, O witchy one?" asked Aaron.

Rowena glanced at her friends and stifled a sigh. She expected resistance from Aaron, but she at least hoped for a little support from the two peacekeepers of the group. Tanya and Kelly merely stared at her, a bit blankly.

"Just one last thing; the amulet can also call the souls of those who have passed on."

Now her friends looked nervous. "What would you want to do that for?" Kelly wanted to know.

"Having the spirits of loved ones nearby can be a great comfort," Rowena said simply.

"My grandmother insists my grandfather comes back to her in dreams and gives her the numbers to winning lottery tickets," offered Aaron.

Rowena wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or was genuinely trying to help, so she let it slide. She turned to Craig, who had remained silent the entire time, and slipped the amulet around his neck. "I think of the five of us, you need to be surrounded by positive energy the most," she said in response to his confused look.

He nodded wordlessly and started walking away. "You're meeting me later, right?" Kelly called after him.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "Something's come up."

He continued walking and was soon out of sight. Kelly frowned hard and headed off to her next class. Rowena frowned, too; it wasn't like Craig to break a date with his lady-love, at least not without an explanation. She nudged Aaron with her elbow.

"Track him down later, okay? I don't like all the negativity he's spewing."

* * *

Aaron kept an eye out for Craig throughout the day, but the downtrodden teen stayed scarce. He didn't even show up for lunch, something that had Kelly worried for the rest of the afternoon. She had some kind of program to go to with the squad after school, however, so she couldn't go looking for him. So, as soon as the final bell rang, Aaron took off running, heading straight for his family's restaurant.

His mother was at the register, filing away a handful of dollar bills with one hand and absently straightening her ginger-colored bun with the other. Relief filled her lining features as her youngest son strolled through the door. "Good, your cousin Mark just called and said he's come down with a cold. I need you to man the grill for a couple of hours."

Aaron glanced at the kitchen, already bustling with members of his family and their closest friends and wrinkled his nose in distaste. "Can it wait a little while? There's something I need to take care of, first."

Mrs. Stevens glanced at her watch with a sigh. "I suppose, so long as you're back before 4:00. Not a moment later, understand?"

"Of course. Thanks, mom."

Aaron planted a kiss on his mother's flushed cheek before dashing out of the stuffy restaurant and back into the crisp October air. Once on the street, he found himself wishing that he had his own car, for about the thousandth time that month alone. Without one, he had no choice but to hop onto his younger cousin's bicycle, which thankfully wasn't too small for him. It just made him feel a little silly, since he was the only seventeen-year-old he knew that didn't have his own wheels.

He forgot about all about it by the time the old factory came into view. It was the one place Craig would go if he wanted to avoid everyone, even his friends.

Aaron found him sitting next to the empty fire pit, with multiple glass bottles lined up beside him on the wooden beam. Aaron had choice words leap into his mind at the sight, but for once he held his tongue. Instead of speaking, his moved a plastic sports bottle out of the way and sat next to his friend.

Craig obviously wasn't in the mood to talk. He glanced dully at the smaller teen before polishing off what was left of the bottle in his hand. Aaron fiddled with the cap of the sports bottle as the awkward silence mounted.

Craig suddenly threw the bottle he was holding, making it bounce and roll across the dirt. The wind whistled through the neck with a metallic ring. "You know something?"

Aaron shook his head, not daring to open his mouth.

"I'm never going to make it into college on my own. Everyone knows it, especially my dad."

Aaron continued to fiddle with the cap as he waited silently for his friend to let out his troubles. He had known Craig long enough to know that all he really wanted was a non-judgemental ear to vent into. All Aaron had to do was wait quietly for him to finish.

"He has to know," Craig went on angrily. He got abruptly to his feet and began pacing beside the fire ring as he talked. "He's seen my grades, and that's why he got me that expensive private tutor. I asked him where he was getting the money to pay for everything and he told me not to worry about it. You know what I found out this morning?"

Aaron shook his head wordlessly.

"He's leeching money out of my sister. I haven't seen or heard from her in ages, but it seems my father has been calling her at least once a month. I don't know what kind of shit he's been telling her, but she's been sending him checks on a regular basis. And that's not even the worst of it."

Craig turned and kicked at the bottle he had tossed, sending it flying off into the thick tufts of grass behind Aaron. "All this time he's been bragging that his baby girl grew up to be a doctor. But guess what I just learned: she's only a nurse. She can't possibly afford to support herself, me, _and_ my dad's ruthless ambitions."

Aaron had a few choice words to say about that, too, but he couldn't tell if Craig expected him to agree that it sucked or keep quiet, so he continued to stay silent. Craig continued to pace. "We got into a huge fight about it right as I was leaving for school. I say it's her money and she's earned it, but he insists that family's have to support each other. To top it all off, I lost my nerve and ran off without telling him what I really think about his plans for me."

Craig sat down on the beam again, looking drained. Aaron patted his shoulder. "If it comes to that, my offer still stands, bro. You can have my sister's old room."

Aaron hoped the visual of his sister's bedroom, all pink lace and porcelain dolls, would make the burly teen laugh. It worked; Craig chuckled, though half-heartedly.

"Let's face it; I haven't the guts to stand up to him. I'm stuck with this, no matter how much I hate it."

He reached around Aaron and grabbed another bottle. Aaron was tempted to stop him, but instead he pulled the cap off the sports bottle and took an experimental sniff. The liquid inside smelled sweet, and he vaguely heard the sound of it fizzing.

He sniffed again, then took a small sip. "Is this grape cola?" he wondered, belching slightly.

Craig glanced at him before taking a swig from his own bottle. "Call it what you like."

Aaron shrugged and took another sip. "It's time for a change of subject," he announced, belching again.

"I'm all ears," said Craig.

Aaron stared off into space for a few moments. His eyes squinted, and he reached out and pinched at the air. "Either a swarm of gnats just showed up, or I'm seeing spots in front of my eyes."

Craig glanced at him and smirked. "Must be the gnats," he said, bringing his own bottle to his lips again.

Aaron shrugged and took another sip from the sports bottle. He could swear that the world warped slightly as he lowered the bottle again, but Craig didn't say anything, so he shrugged it off.

"I forget, what was I saying?"

"You were changing the subject," Craig told him.

Craig hiccuped as he spoke, but he continued to drain the bottle in his hand. Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know what's funny?"

"No, please tell me."

"Two weeks ago we were reporting the lives of famous killers in graphic detail, and this week we have to write an essay about how important exports are to a nation's economy. Teachers are weird."

Craig laughed so suddenly he almost snorted whatever he was drinking up his nose. "Speaking of weird," he said, wiping his mouth, "there was a lot more to my report that I didn't mention before. I was going to, but I figured I better not. You know how easily Tanya freaks out."

"Uh huh...funny how well she gets along with Rowena, considering...well, you know."

"I think she likes to pretend that part of Rowena's personality doesn't actually exist. Anyway, according to what I read, some pretty strange stuff started going on after that guy I studied was torched by his neighbors."

Aaron shook the sports bottle slightly; it was almost empty. "How so?"

Craig thoughtfully swirled his own bottle, making the liquid within spin like a cyclone. "Well, the parents tried to go on as if nothing had happened, but their surviving children claimed they were seeing Krueger in their dreams, and that he had come back from the dead for revenge."

Aaron blinked for a moment. "Trippy, dude. Just...trippy."

Craig glanced at his blank expression and smirked for a second. "The really strange part is that most of those kids turned up dead. According to the articles I dug up, there are still some who believe that the stories are true, and they live in fear of their own dreams to this day."

Aaron grew quiet as he tilted his head back and drained the last of the sports bottle. As he did, he slipped off the wooden beam and landed on his rear. He heard Craig snickering as he pulled himself back up, but he decided to ignore it.

"Did you put all that in your report?" he asked.

"Of course."

"And all you got was a C+?"

Craig snorted and tossed his unfinished bottle away. "Professor Davis thought it was an unnecessary addition, since it covered what happened after my subject's death. He wanted us to only include what each person did during his or her life. Kelly said it was a 'fascinating example of the superstitions human beings create in order to cope with tragedy they can't fully explain'."

After he spoke, Craig scrunched up his nose and stared off into space, eyes slightly out of focus. "At least, I _think_ that's what she said."

"Sounds like something Kelly would say. Or close to it." Aaron rubbed his own eyes; the world was warping again.

Craig started to laugh, so Aaron did, too, even though he wasn't sure what the joke was. "You know what I think? I think that's just another example of the bullshit parents tell their kids so they behave."

Still laughing, Aaron nodded vigorously. "Totally, dude. My folks told the craziest shit you can think of to keep me and my big brother in line."

Craig laughed along with him; he seemed to have forgotten the argument with his father. "Like what?" he wanted to know.

Aaron stopped laughing and looked blank again. "I forget."

Craig continued to chuckle as he started hunting for a fresh bottle. "But like Kelly says, some people take their superstitions pretty seriously. Those guys even made up a rhyme. How spooked do you have to be to start singing about a serial killer?"

Aaron stopped trying to remember what his mother used to tell him in order to get him to go to bed early and shrugged. "Pretty spooked, I'd say. Much like the folks who invented Ring Around a Rosie."

The larger teen grinned as he pulled the top off another bottle. "This one's even creepier."

"Do tell."

Craig scrunched up his nose again as he stared off into space. "Well, I know it starts out "1, 2...", but I can't remember what comes next."

"Buckle my shoe," said Aaron promptly. "Everyone knows _that_ one, dufus."

Craig rolled his eyes as he took a swig of his bottle. "I'm not talking about the big fat hen we used to sing about in kindergarten. _Dufus_."

"I know, you're trying to sing about a guy named Fred. Don't worry, I've known that one since I was a kid."

Eyebrow cocked, Craig gave his friend a look of disbelief. "Liar, you have not."

"Have so. It goes like this."

Aaron got to his feet and, after wobbling for a moment, cleared his throat like he was about to deliver an important speech. "My name is Fred. I don't eat bread. I don't sleep in a bed. I don't have a head. I think I'm dead."

After he finished, Aaron gave a bow as if he were a magician ready to leave the stage after preforming a fantastic illusion. Several seconds of confused silence passed before Craig started laughing so hard he slipped and fell off his perch. "What the hell was _that_?" he demanded, still laughing.

Aaron grinned and started to sit down again. He was aiming for the wooden beam, but he missed somehow and landed in the dirt. He decided to act like that was where he wanted to sit and pulled his knees to his chest. "I have no idea, but my brother used to sing it to me."

Craig also decided to stay where he was, and continuing drinking from his bottle as he struggled to stop laughing. "You know something? I'm beginning to think your random acts of insanity are all your brother's fault."

Aaron's smile faded a little. "Yeah...I sure miss him," he said gloomily.

Instead of turning serious for a moment, Craig laughed again. "Want to call him back with Rowena's little trinket?" he queried, holding the silver amulet up with his free hand.

Aaron rolled his eyes. "Give me a break, dude. You know I don't buy her witchy mumbo-jumbo for a second."

"Me either."

Craig let the amulet drop back into his shirt and took a long drink. Aaron stood up and brushed off his pants. "I better get back. Take it easy, you don't want to walk and drive."

Instead of taking heed, Craig started snickering. "I think you mean don't drink and drive. It's cool, I'm walking."

"That's what I said. You could walk into the wrong house or something. Anyway, catch you later."

After waving goodbye, Aaron stumbled back to the street, where he squinted off in the distance. Between the rampant gnats and the bouncing road, he was growing a little worried about his chances of finding his own home. With a tired sigh and a vow to never drink anything Craig offered him again, he took a wobbly step in what he hoped was the right direction.


	6. Chapter 6

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 5: Time for Ghoulish Fun**

As Craig walked the school halls the next morning, the noisy clamber of students was dulled by the buzzing in his ears. He didn't get home until late last night, which started another fight with his father, especially after he saw how drunk his son was. Craig didn't really care; he had been so out of it he could barely remember anything other than his father shouting a lot. Aside from the faint ache in his skull, he felt pretty good.

Aaron, on the other hand, looked like he should have stayed in bed that morning. He stumbled over to his locker while holding his head and squinting his bleary eyes. Despite his obvious pain, he turned to Craig and Kelly with as big a grin as he could manage.

"Happy Halloween, boys and girls," he greeted, sounding cheerful in spite of looking only partially awake.

His grin faded as his eyes fully focused on Craig. "I don't think that was grape cola, dude."

Kelly nudged Craig in the ribs. "Were you drinking again last night?" she asked in a whisper.

"Only a bit," Craig whispered back.

Kelly studied him for a moment, her eyes filled with a silent plea. "Just be careful," was all she said.

Aaron finished digging in his locker and stumbled away. After he was gone, Craig pulled Rowena's amulet over his head and slipped it over Kelly's. She looked down at it in surprise.

"Why give it to me?" she wondered.

"Happy anniversary," said Craig with a grin.

Kelly started to laugh. "Silly, our anniversary isn't until next month."

"No time like the present. Besides, it looks better on you than it does me."

Kelly cupped the sparkling amulet in her hand, her admiration plain. "Magical or not, I feel like a million bucks wearing something like this. Thanks, sweetie."

She pecked his cheek before hurrying off to class.

* * *

It was about a minute and a half before the first bell when Tanya decided to pull out her camera and take a few pictures of the hallway. The decorating committee had really outdone themselves this year. The walls were covered in gooey webs ranging from bright white to dingy gray; bats, cats, cauldrons and witches on brooms hung from the ceiling; spiders of all shapes, sizes and colors were tacked to walls and locker doors, and rubber caps designed to look like bulging eyes hid every doorknob.

"People keep asking me if I feel at home," scoffed a voice behind her.

Tanya snapped one last shot before turning around. Rowena, arms folded and nose high in the air, was surveying the festive spectacle with complete disgust.

"That's a little stereotypical of them," agreed Tanya. "Though you have to admit, it isn't hard to see why they get that impression."

Rowena glanced down at her torn black T-shirt dress, gray leggings and chunky black boots. "How so?" she asked seriously.

Tanya hid a smile. Few people were aware of it, but Rowena was actually an old-fashioned girl at heart. She avoided flashy video games and movies like the plague, preferring to stay at home curled up with an old classic novel or black-and-white film. When their fellow students caught a glimpse of her artwork, they always assumed someone else had done it.

"And people wonder why I'm anti-social," grumbled Rowena. "I like attention as much as the next girl, but negative attention is for hollywood celebs and other mindless goombas."

Tanya didn't respond. Her eyes were on the bulletin board, the same one she had to walk by every day. She had glanced at it expecting to see the same poster that had been there for the last four months, but instead she found herself staring at a black piece of construction paper.

Written on it were safety instructions for the Halloween party that night, printed in the form of a playful poem and decorated with smiling jack-o-lanterns and hissing cats.

Rowena came and peered over her shoulder. "What's up?"

Tanya nodded wordlessly at the black paper. Rowena grew quiet, understanding. "Kelly worries that might be one of us," Tanya said quietly. "That if anything ever happened, we would end up nothing more than a face on the wall."

Tanya was a little concerned that speaking her thoughts out loud might upset Rowena, but she just shook her head and gave her friend's shoulder a squeeze. "Not possible. We've all got family's, close ones, even if some of them aren't quite what we wish they were. And we've got each other, don't we? Don't fret about it."

She gave Tanya's shoulder another squeeze before turning and walking away. "And don't feel guilty," she called over her shoulder.

Tanya nodded, and Rowena's sleek form disappeared around the corner. Though she didn't say so, that was exactly the problem; she _did_ feel guilty. A girl from her school was gone, and it didn't seem like she would ever be found. And judging by the happy faces surrounding her, laughing and chattering excitedly about the party...no one cared.

* * *

"Hey, dickweed."

Craig didn't bother to look up from his lunch. "Hey, Aaron. Feeling better?"

Aaron sat across from him, dropping his tray to the table with a bang. "Still buzzed, thanks. My cousin is pissed at me because I forgot his bike by the factory. And if I'm not sober in time for the party, I'm holding you responsible."

Craig rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you're actually excited about that thing."

"Aren't you? Like Rowena said, this is the last time we'll be able to have fun together like this. We might as well enjoy ourselves."

Craig sighed, but he didn't say anything else. Aaron was obviously looking forward to Halloween, so he may as well let him have his fun, if only to make up for getting him drunk. Craig, on the other hand, had been ready to give up juvenile school functions years ago.

"What are you going as?" asked Aaron, sounding more like his usual self.

"Me," replied Craig dully.

"Oh, come on. Kelly's going as a go-go girl. Aren't you going to find something that matches?"

"No."

Aaron muttered something under his breath, but he dropped it and started talking about something else. Craig didn't pay attention to a thing his friend said; he was busy zoning out that day, and he didn't want anything to break his concentration. The less he tried to think, the less likely he would remember what he had been so upset about yesterday. Yesterday was like a blur, and he hoped to keep it that way. And if maintaining that goal meant going to an immature school party and hanging out with immature teenagers, so be it.


	7. Chapter 7

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 6: Little Girl Lost**

The sun was just dipping below the horizon as Kelly and her friends approached the school. The concrete steps that led to the front doors were bathed in a red-gold light that made the school look foreign and strange, even though they had only been away from it for a few hours. Pint-sized trick-or-treaters ran through the streets behind them as the five stepped through the double set of glass doors.

Principal Adwell was waiting inside, wearing his normal gray suit and a cheery smile. "Greetings, Miss Anderson," he said when he saw Kelly. "Or should I say 'groovy'?"

Kelly giggled and smoothed the front of her go-go costume. Principal Adwell was smoothing his receding hairline with an almost wistful look on his face. He wasn't worrying about meetings or students bound for detention for once, and he looked at the group of teens in an almost envious way. Kelly expected him to gaze off into the distance any second and forget about them as he lost himself in memories of his own youth.

Instead, he gazed at the person standing next to her, eyebrows raised almost to his scalp. "Miss Madison? Is that you?"

Rowena let out a chuckle and executed a model-worthy turn, displaying the authentic flapper dress she had borrowed from her great-grandmother.

Besides the dress, shoes, beads, and cloche hat, her black hair was hidden beneath a short blond wig. Kelly herself had done a triple-take when she first saw her. "I thought I'd bring a touch of class to the evening," said Rowena, pursing her cupid-bow lips.

Most other girls in their age group would be dressed in as little as possible that night, using various characters as an excuse to show as much skin as their parents would allow. Except for girls like Tanya, who looked every bit an angel in her modest white robe.

Principal Adwell looked at Aaron and laughed, and the girls joined him. "I guess we called you the class-clown once too often, huh?"

Aaron laughed in return and hiked up his baggy, spotted pants. "Nah, I'm just poking fun at all the people who wish I would run away with the circus."

He honked his bulbous nose, making the girls giggle again. Craig didn't crack a smile, which made Kelly frown.

"Is something on your mind?" she asked softly.

He shook his head. "Not really."

"Oh," said Principal Adwell, as if he'd just thought of something. "The remodeling is almost finished. It should be over with later next week. About time, huh?"

Kelly glanced at Tanya and Rowena, who stopped smiling at Aaron and looked at her. They quickly looked away again. Craig fiddled with a string that had pulled loose from his jeans like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.

"You mean the remodeling they've been doing in the pool room all year, right?" asked Aaron, his voice unnaturally serious.

Principal Adwell nodded and patted his middle with both hands. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to go and grab a candied apple. Have fun tonight, kids."

The stout man strolled down the hall and disappeared into the cafeteria. Tanya and Aaron started after him, and Kelly tugged Craig into motion.

When Rowena didn't follow, they looked back and saw that she was staring back at the glass doors they had just come through. The light of the setting sun was filling the hallway with the same red-gold light that was bathing the front steps, only the affect was even eerier. "Tonight is always special," Rowena murmured.

"Uh oh," sighed Aaron. "She's at it again."

Tanya shot him a warning look, but Rowena just smiled coolly. "Sometimes I wonder," she said in a low, even voice, "what gives this night more power; true supernatural influence, or the combined belief held in so many human minds?"

Kelly shrugged slightly, not sure what she meant. Believing in something didn't give it any more power than something that no one believed in. Things didn't have powers--they just existed.

Rowena looked at Kelly's expression and smiled thinly, almost as if she knew what she was thinking. "Either way," Rowena added, "the spirits of the dead are always close this night."

Rowena walked briskly ahead and entered the cafeteria. For a moment the hall was filled with the loud voices of partying students, until the doors swung shut again, cutting the sounds off. Kelly reached up and absently rubbed the pendant hanging from her neck with her thumb; Rowena's speech about spirits had given her the chills. She tried not to, but she started to picture the face of a sixteen-year-old dancer.

Kelly glanced at Tanya and could tell by the nervous look on her face that she was thinking the same thing. Behind her, she heard Aaron snickering. Strangely, Craig started to laugh, too.

"What's so funny?" she asked, turning around.

"Oh, nothing," said Aaron, still snickering.

He nudged Craig with his elbow. Craig nudged him back. Sighing, Kelly grabbed Craig's arm and started pulling him away.

"The party is this way, babe," Aaron called as Kelly lead Craig past the cafeteria doors.

"We'll be right there," she called over her shoulder.

To her relief, she heard Tanya whisper something. Telling Aaron to let them be, no doubt. She glanced over her shoulder; Tanya was leading him through the doors.

"Don't take too long, dude," Aaron yelled over the noise. "And don't fall asleep!"

The order made Craig laugh, but Kelly decided not to ask why; she never understood his and Aaron's jokes. Instead, she rested her head on his shoulder and continued to walk further away from the noisy party. She knew Craig wasn't eager to join the throng of hyper students, and he let her lead him wherever she wanted.

Kelly had never been so deep inside the school after hours before. The classrooms were dark, empty and silent, and their footsteps sounded strange as they echoed through the empty halls. They reached the stairway that led to the second floor; Kelly paused and leaned against the railing. Craig sat on the lowest step.

"What are you going to do after we graduate?" Craig suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

Kelly was startled, and not just because she wasn't expecting him to speak. Craig knew what she wanted to do; she wanted to go to college and get her psychology degree. Of course, Craig also knew that what she wanted was a lot different from what her mother wanted.

"I'm not sure," she murmured. "I'm really not sure what will happen."

Craig nodded, looking as though he had expected that kind of answer. Kelly chewed her lip for a moment. "I've an idea," she said, trying to cheer them both up. "How about we make a deal? After we graduate, we tell our parents what is it we want, no matter what. I'll stand by you when you talk to your father, and you'll stand by me when I talk to my mother."

Instead of brightening at the idea, Craig snorted. "Like it would be that easy..."

"Well, don't just give in to him," Kelly told him with a frown.

Craig shook his head and got to his feet. "Were are you going?" Kelly demanded as he started mounting the stairs.

"Up to where all my troubles lie," Craig grumbled in reply.

Kelly fiddled with her pendant nervously. She didn't want to go up there. Not tonight. Craig glanced at her worried expression. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want to walk pass the pool room right now," she murmured.

"So don't," said Craig, and continued to climb the stairs.

Kelly watched him until he was out of sight, then turned back towards the cafeteria with a sigh. Leaving Craig alone when he was in a bad frame of mind wasn't a good idea, but she couldn't bring herself to go upstairs. Thanks to Rowena she still felt spooked, like there was a ghost lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce.

She almost laughed out loud at herself; that was childish and silly. Still, she knew she would feel better once she was surrounded by her fellow students, and she walked quickly back towards the cafeteria, still clutching the pendant hanging from her neck. As she reached for the cafeteria door, she happened to look down and remember that it wasn't just any pendant she had been rubbing; it was Rowena's amulet.

* * *

Felicity Masters opened her eyes with a groan. Her entire body felt like her foot after holding it still for too long. The tingling sensation passed quickly, almost like someone decided to come and vacuum it right out of her.

She sat up and saw that she was in the middle of her school hallway. It was empty and dim, and she could just make out the clock that was hanging on the nearby wall. She squinted in the waning light, but the fat black hands were clear; it was almost 7:00 PM. What the heck was she doing in school at this hour?

Felicity gave her head a shake, but it didn't help. Her mind was as clear as it ever was, she simply had no memory of how she had gotten there, or what she had been doing. She rubbed her temples and thought hard; what _was_ the last thing she could remember?

She spent the next few minutes trying to piece her life back together, and it wasn't very hard. Her life was as short as it was simple; her dad ran off with another woman when she was five, her mother worked multiple jobs so she and her only daughter could live comfortably. Their house was small and considered a waste of space by the richer part of town, but Felicity loved it. Her mother worked hard day in and day out, so she worked hard, too, and got into high school on a scholarship.

So here she was, but why? She hadn't known school was even open at this hour.

Confused but knowing she wouldn't get any answers sitting on her butt, Felicity got to her feet and started walking down the empty hall. As she did, her eyes drifted upwards to the objects dangling from the ceiling by black string.

She stopped and stared, mouth agape. "You've got to be kidding me."

The very idea seemed insane, but there was no mistaking it; the school was decorated for Halloween. She couldn't remember how she wound up in school after dark, but she clearly remembered how the halls had been decorated earlier that day.

Tri-colored streamers, sparkling stars and other patriotic symbols, all announcing that it was again time to celebrate the birth of their country. Not that there were many school districts still open that time of year. There were plenty of summer classes running, though, offering extra credit programs for underachievers--or overachievers, like herself.

There weren't any classes on the 4th, but they were throwing a special summer party that day. School parties were usually boring, but she had gone anyway, just to annoy some people. There were a lot of students who didn't like her simply because she had gotten there by brains alone, not money. She remembered that part of her life quite clearly.

She remembered all of it clearly—except why she just woke up in the middle of the school's hallway.

"It's a joke," she muttered as she began poking her head in different classrooms. "It's got to be a joke."

It had to be. She had fallen asleep during the party and someone had dragged her out here. And then, because they were childish and had too much time on their hands, had decorated the school to make her think it was Halloween, just to mess with her head. She was probably locked in, too. Oh well...she could always call someone for help. She was just glad they hadn't had the mind to do something worse.

Felicity stopped walked and peered into a darkened classroom. Even in the dark, she knew the impossibly neat space anywhere; it was Ms. Watson's class.

Ms. Watson was a super teacher; the kind of person who never forgot a single detail, was always on time for everything, and could tell you the weather better than the reporters on TV. She was also quite brutal when it came to dealing out punishment, so there were few students who would mess with her or her personal space.

With that in mind, Felicity hurried to her desk and grabbed the calendar sitting next to Ms. Watson's pencil sharpener. It was too dark to read it, so Felicity switched on the lights. She squinted automatically as the room flooded with unnatural light, but her eyes didn't sting as she looked down and read the date.

October 31st.

Felicity stared in disbelief, but there was no mistaking the big, bulky lettering. Ms. Watson tore off the old date every morning as she sat down to start class for the day. She never tore a sheet off in advance, and there was no sane reason for someone to rip off four whole months.

There was only one other explanation. It was really Halloween, four months after her last clear memory.

Felicity dropped the calendar and stumbled back out into the hall, not bothering to turn the lights back off first. "What is going on," she mumbled.

She stopped walking and scanned the empty hall with near-panicked eyes. "What the hell is going on?!" she hollered at the top of her lungs.

No one answered. Though as she started walking again, the sound of voices touched the outer reaches of her hearing. She paused again and strained to listen.

Young voices chattering. Loud laughter and music. A squeal from a teen girl. The unmistakable sounds of a party.

Felicity started to take a step toward the sounds, knowing that her best chance of figuring out what was happening was to find someone to ask, but an icy spike of fear in her gut stopped her in her tracks. She clamped her hands over her middle and stopped moving; the feeling subsided.

Felicity frowned to herself and tried taking another step. An extra loud burst of laughter started up, and the fear started shooting through her core again.

Changing her mind, Felicity turned and hurried in the opposite direction. She didn't understand what _that_ was about, but she decided to worry about it later. Right now, she figured the best thing to do was leave the school and get home. Her mother was probably worried sick by now.

_Mom_, she thought.

Mom would know what was going on. Mom would know how to--

Felicity's thoughts came to a screeching halt as she suddenly collided with something. She stumbled backwards and fell to the linoleum floor as a fiery pain shot across her face and chest. As she lie flat on the ground, a memory of grabbing the wire of an electrified fence on her uncle's farm when she was six flashed through her mind. She remembered that pain vividly, and wondered what kind of maniac would string electrified wire across a school hallway.

But as she sat up and looked around, there was nothing visible in the moonlight that was starting to shine through the windows that ran the length of the hall. More confused than ever, Felicity got slowly to her feet. She checked from floor to ceiling, but there was nothing blocking her way.

Knowing that she had to have run into _something_, she reached out and waved her hand in the air. Though there was nothing there that her eyes could see, she keenly felt her fingers strike something, and it snapped her hand back like she had been slapped with a baseball bat.

Felicity staggered back and clutched her hand to her chest as she stared dumbly at the open space in front of her. It was as crazy as it was impossible, but there was no other way to explain it; there was some kind of barrier in front of her, and it was invisible.

It also hurt like hell to touch, but fortunately the pain didn't last long. Felicity flexed her fingers a moment before placing her hands on her hips with a look of determination.

"Things like this just don't happen," she muttered to herself.

It had to be a prank, or some kind of nightmare, or _something_. Yes, that was it...she was dreaming. Lying safely at home in her cozy little bed, and in the morning her sweet mom would wake her up with a cup of hot chocolate.

Felicity let this image fade as she heard someone creep up behind her. Though she didn't hear him so much as _feel_ him; there were no footsteps as he approached, but the distinct naughty energy that surrounded someone looking for trouble loomed behind her as tangible as a cloud. She could easily picture some silly teen sneaking up on her, suppressing his giggles as he prepared to yell 'boo!' and then laugh himself sick as she shrieked.

Well, was _he_ in for a surprise. Felicity Masters didn't jump for anything, but she _did_ plant her knee in the groins of annoying boys.

She spun around to do exactly this, but she didn't see any annoying teen boys. All she saw were four blades glinting in the moonlight, right before they plunged into the soft flesh of her middle.


	8. Chapter 8

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 7: The Killer is Free**

Fred Krueger could think of no logical reason why he was suddenly yanked out of the netherworld and thrust back into the world of the living—but he had never been one to fuss over small and unimportant details.

He waited until the familiar feeling of his undead body coming back together to pass before picking himself up, brushing off his tattered sweater and straightening his hat. Once that was done, he began flexing his gloved hand as he physically and mentally prepared himself for a night of hunting for fresh souls.

Still flexing his hand, he started walking down the hall he had woken up in, which obviously belonged to a large school. A school decorated for Halloween, if the excessive decorations hanging everywhere meant anything. He didn't need to look around long before he figured out that the school was large and extremely expensive.

This wasn't your average public school, which were usually half the size of this one and affordable for the average parent. This was the kind of place parents sent their kids when they wanted to make sure their little minds were cultivated to the highest degree, and entry usually cost almost as much as a college tuition. Some families sacrificed nearly every other aspect of their lives in order to afford places like this, but most of the students who walked these halls were teens who never had to worry about where their next meal came from.

Which suited Freddy just fine; rich kids made the best victims.

With their futures spelled out for them from day one, they were so assured of their own existences that it never occurs to them that it all might end without warning, and in ways more painful and terrifying than their narrow little minds could imagine, if _he_ had anything to say about it.

As he continued down a corridor that practically screamed of excess, Freddy suddenly realized something that made stop to reassess his situation, as well as wonder just how he had been whisked back so abruptly.

In his haste and eagerness, he had failed to notice until now that he wasn't strolling around in the dream world--he was in the _real_ world.

This of course had its benefits; there were no restrictions on who he could kill here, and he didn't have to wait for them to fall asleep first, either. Anyone and everyone was fair game, which was fun, but there were several drawbacks.

He had to obey the laws of reality just like everyone else while he was here, so that meant someone particularly resourceful could find some way to trap him, which was always annoying. Even worse was the fact that he couldn't shrug off nearly any attack like he could in the dream world; if he sustained an injury here, he was stuck with it. Getting sliced up hurt a little more here, too.

The real world was definitely more dangerous than the dream world, but he wasn't worried. No one knew he was back, and if the happy laughter coming from another part of the school was any indication, the local teens were completely unprepared for something like him to suddenly show up. And then he noticed something that nearly made him grin in delight.

Moonlight was glinting off a nearby glass case, and inside it was an array of polished trophies and other awards. Hanging along the back was a banner proclaiming something or another, exactly what he didn't care, but along the bottom were the words, 'Illinois, land of Lincoln'.

It was just too perfect. He wasn't even in Springwood anymore, so no one would have any idea who would suddenly turn their quaint little town into an ongoing funeral procession. There probably wasn't a single person who knew his name within hundreds of miles.

The sound of a girl's laughter rang through the air, slightly muffled, and this time Freddy grinned broadly. The silly child had no idea that the real party was about to begin, and if all went well it would last for weeks to come.

With his misgivings taking a backseat to his eagerness, Freddy quickened his pace as he looked for the room the giggling little party-goers were hanging out in. His search came to an end a lot sooner than he expected; he rounded a corner and discovered that someone had wandered away from the safety of the group.

She was blonde, fine-boned, small for a high school student, and completely alone. Her back was to him.

It was almost too easy, but it was also too good of an opportunity to pass up. Moving with the speed and silence of a cat he approached her from behind, right hand raised to strike.

He made his move with the intention of her never knowing what hit her, but she spun around at the last second. Which was better yet; he liked it when they saw it coming.

She didn't scream or cry out as he buried his blades in her midsection; he didn't give her the chance. He grinned widely as he looked directly in her dark eyes, which bulged at him in stunned silence as he pushed his blades deeper and deeper into her stomach. Into that soft, tender place just below where the ribs separated, a place so perfect and vulnerable it was almost like God had designed it for this purpose.

Freddy held his fingers in place a moment longer before jerking them away, making sure to give them a cruel twist as he withdrew.

The girl collapsed to her knees with a tiny squeak, her hands clamping vainly over her stomach. Her head drooped almost to her chest, and Freddy watched with a smile as he waited for her to fall forward completely and bleed at his feet.

Instead, the girl's head popped back up, and the rest of her with it.

"You stupid turd! What the hell are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?"

The outraged inquiry triggered a feeling Freddy wasn't accustomed to; astonishment.

She wasn't finished, either. "I'm sure in your drunken little mind that was totally hilarious. Well, I'm not laughing, and I'm not going to squeal and run away like the bubble-headed bimbos you're used to teasing. So do us both a favor: take your butt-ugly mask, your crappy sweater, and go back to the party and find someone else to annoy."

And she turned her back to him again, hands on her hips. Freddy blankly stared at the back of her head for several moments before glancing down at his right hand. The blades protruding from his fingertips were so clean they nearly shone in the moonlight. There wasn't a single trace of blood on them. Was he really so out of practice that he had missed completely? He could have sworn he had been tickling her large intestine...

He would just have to try again. Only it wasn't any fun if his victim wasn't afraid, and this girl had obviously mistaken him for a silly teen playing dress up for Halloween. Well, he'd fix that in a hurry.

"Hey," he called in a harsh voice that demanded attention.

The puny girl glanced over her shoulder for a second. "Didn't I make myself clear? I'm busy here, so piss off."

She didn't look very busy to Freddy. There wasn't so much as a dust particle in the spot she was staring so intently at. He raised his hand and clacked his blades together noisily.

"This'll only take a second. Trust me."

The girl turned around with a dramatic roll of her eyes, which she made sure he saw. He was going to enjoy finding out what those eyes looked like on the tips of his blades.

He kept his own eyes locked with the pretty brown orbs as he lifted his hand and raked his blades across his own chest, tearing deeply through fabric and flesh. Dark fluid poured out and ran down his clothes.

The girl took a step back like she was frightened, though it still didn't show in her eyes. Grinning crookedly, Freddy lifted the stained blades and waved them at her.

By this point, any other girl would be panicked and ready to run, or running already. The tiny blonde slid one foot back slowly, her eyes flicking over her shoulder. She took another step back, looking as if she was trying to gauge just how fast she needed to run in order to escape. Her legs weren't long, but she looked like she was in good shape and he imagined she could move pretty quickly. He decided he wouldn't mind if she got away from him; a long chase through a dark school might be fun.

The girl suddenly bolted into action—toward him. Caught off guard by this unexpected move, Freddy was unprepared for the shoulder that was shoved into his gut with enough power to make the resident quarterback jealous. If the windows lining the hallway hadn't been reinforced and nearly two inches thick, the one he was slammed into would have cracked beneath the impact.

Freddy had to slide down the slick surface in order to place his feet on the floor again, and he pushed his askewed hat back in time to see the deceptively small girl disappear down another hall. He was taking a step to follow when it finally occurred to him what he had just done.

Hurting himself was a quick and easy way to scare the hell out of people, and it was a way he used so frequently he had done it without even thinking about it. He had forgotten that this was the real world, and that meant the gaping wounds he just made weren't going anywhere. He had done some dumb things in the past, but this was one of the dumbest.

Now, if he were still in the safety of the dream world, it wouldn't be any problem at all. All it took was a little concentration, and then...

As he thought about it, Freddy unconsciously called up the same energy he always used when he healed himself, and the next thing he knew he had blinked out of reality and back again. Startled, he looked down and saw that his chest was tear-free and clean again.

He had no idea how or why it had happened, but it didn't take long for him to figure out that he could now pass in and out of the dream world at will. It was an unexpected change, but it was a change that practically made him leap for joy.

Nothing could stop him now. He had the power to go anywhere, do anything, and kill anyone he wanted. And no one could catch him, not if he could enter and escape reality whenever he pleased. This night was going to turn out to be an even bigger party than he first thought.

As if on cue, something beckoned to him in the night air, as smooth and gentle as a beacon of light. Someone nearby had just fallen asleep. Practically grinning with glee, Freddy adjusted his hat and hurried towards the foolish little sleeper, who was witlessly dreaming the last dream they would ever see. He really didn't need to enter dreams anymore...but it was oh so much fun.


	9. Chapter 9

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 8: A Rising Star Fades**

Felicity rounded a corner at top speed and slammed into a vending machine full of school supplies. Momentarily disorientated, she leaned against the boxy appliance briefly before peeking around the corner to see if she was being followed.

The moon-bathed hallway was empty, and the only sound she could hear was the faint sounds of the nearby party. Felicity noted the dent she just put in the side of the vending machine as she stepped away from it. She imagined she should be in pain after hitting it as hard as she had, but she wasn't in any discomfort at all.

Thinking about pain made her remember what just happened, and she quickly moved into the light shining down from a small window near the ceiling. After shrugging off her denim jacket, she slowly pulled up the hem of her shirt and looked down at her stomach.

Her skin looked paler than usual in the dimness, and the moonlight cast faint shadows that made her abs looked more defined than they really were. There were no sign of any marks of any kind, to her relief. Feeling silly for having worried in the first place, Felicity quickly put her shirt back in place and pulled her jacket back on.

It was just a trick, and she had let herself be fooled by it. She knew there were specialty stores that sold all sorts of weird stuff, like the contraptions they used for spurting fake blood in the movies. The big dork probably had something like that hidden under his shirt, and the weird weapon he was wearing was probably blunt and retractable.

She was positive about the last part, since she had clearly watched the blades disappear until his fingertips pressed against her midsection. Though at the time she could swear she felt the blades _inside_ her body, poking at her innards. She couldn't remember any pain, however, so she decided her brief moment of fear had caused her to imagine it. It was the only explanation; her stomach was completely fine.

What she couldn't account for were the four slender holes in the middle of her shirt.

Felicity gave herself a shake and pushed the incident from her mind. There was no reason to dwell on the shenanigans of some immature high school student. Before he showed up she had been thinking about home, and that was exactly where she was going to go.

As she was turning in the direction of the nearest exit, another loud burst of laughter sounded from the party, wherever it was. It was less severe than last time, but the sudden wave of fear made Felicity stop in her tracks.

"Great, this again," she muttered.

She had no idea why the sounds of people having a good time triggered such a response, but she was in no mood to try and figure it out. If going closer to the party gave her the willies, she was going to go the other way, simple as that.

With that decided, Felicity backtracked a few feet and started down a hall that went to the right. As she walked with brisk, deliberate steps, the laughter floated up behind as if mocking her retreat. Felicity slowed to a halt as an image flickered through her mind.

She saw a ring of faces surrounding her, faces she knew all too well. The artistic black-haired beauty, Rowena Madison; resident goofball Aaron Stevens; basketball star and heart-throb, Craig Tyler; and Kelly Anderson, the prettiest and most popular girl in school. They were standing in a circle around her, and they were all laughing at her.

The vision jerked and spun in Felicity's mind, like she was trying to break free from the group and run away. Like she was watching the scene through her own eyes, with no control over what was happening.

The image faded, and Felicity stood shivering for a moment. She couldn't be sure if what she just saw was from her own memory or if she was going completely out of her mind.

"Gotta go home," she murmured, jerking her feet into motion. Half-walking, half-running, she turned and started down the stairs that led to the ground floor. "Gotta go home," she repeated. "Gotta go home and--"

Felicity jerked back and fell against the hard linoleum steps. She lay still for a moment, watching the stars dance around her head while she clutched her throbbing face. "Ouch..."

Clearly, whatever force she had collided with a few minutes ago was not wholly unique. Felicity shook her head to clear it, grabbed onto the railing and pulled herself back to her feet. Whatever she had smacked into was as invisible as before, but she was convinced it existed now and didn't go feeling the air this time.

Instead she folded her arms and glared at the seemingly open space, wondering just how many spots in the school were barricaded.

"Wondering just how I went completely off my nut would probably be a more important idea to ponder about now," she grumbled to herself.

Scowling, Felicity leaned forward slightly and squinted, but it didn't change anything. There just wasn't anything there to see, but as she stood staring at the empty air, she slowly noticed that there _was_ something to hear.

It was so faint she could barely detect it, but there was a light hum coming from a spot about a foot in front of her. She moved back a little to make sure the sound wasn't coming from another place, but there wasn't anything else around that was making noise. Felicity leaned closer again and noted there was a slight buzz underneath the hum, but it didn't sound like any form of electricity she had ever heard.

Whatever it was, she had to figure out a way around it.

With another grumble and another question about her own sanity, Felicity headed back up the stairs. A muffled crescendo of shouts from behind her told her that she had mistakenly been going closer to the party, not away from it. She paused to see if the same wave of fear would hit her, but it didn't.

Instead, she thought she felt the emotion the laughter carried with it; joy. It didn't come from inside of her, it was more like it came _to_ her, as if it were rippling through the air like leaves carried on a current of water.

The feeling faded even quicker than it had come, leaving Felicity wondering if she had imagined the entire thing.

Almost like it was answering her silent question, a new emotion fired up and hit her so hard it left her staggering. Felicity clutched her fluttering stomach and wondered if her strange fear was back with a vengeance, but no; as crazy as it seemed, the powerful emotion was not her own.

As if the feeling were a radio wave and she were a receiver, she was picking up an emotion from another person. And that person was experiencing raw, unbridled terror.

* * *

Craig knew that Kelly had to be sad and disappointed right now, but he just couldn't help it. There were times when the anger, confusion, and the overwhelming uncertainty became unbearable, and this was one of those times. And as disappointed as his girlfriend was, he knew that it was his mother who would be the most upset if she knew...but Craig tried not to think about that as he pulled a small bottle from his jacket pocket and took a long drink.

Craig tried not to think about anything at all as he drained the bottle with a speed that made his head swim and spots dance in front of his eyes. As he leaned back against the cold metal of the bleacher he was sitting on, his eyes wandered across the polished floor in front of him, until they inevitably rested on the basketball hoop attached to the far wall.

Craig had despised the contraption his entire life, but that night he found himself thinking that it was the most vile thing ever created. Slumped against the bleacher, Craig started muttering under his breath, cursing whoever had invented it, the sport of basketball itself, and sports in general. But mostly he cursed his father, whom he wished was dead and buried so he could finally be free.

One of the doors of the court suddenly banged open with enough force to shake the school's foundation. "What in the hell do you think you're doing?" a male voice roared.

Craig was so startled he nearly slipped and fell between the spaces between the bleachers. He held onto the edge with his free hand as he stared in stunned disbelief at the person standing in the doorway. A dirty yellow light was shining into the room, illuminating the figure in an almost ghoulish way.

"Dad?" choked Craig. "What are you doing here?"

"What am _I_ doing?" Mr. Tyler asked acidly. "I think what _you're_ doing is a much more important issue right now. I've spent almost half my life making you what you are, and this is how you repay me? By turning into a drunk, just like your mother?"

Craig leaped to his feet and squeezed the neck of the bottle with all his might as he fought back the urge to throw it at his father's head. "You take that back," he hollered, not caring who else heard. "You've done nothing but tell lies about her since the day she divorced you, and I'm sick of hearing them!"

"Hey, the truth hurts," his father declared, almost snickering as he spoke.

Craig couldn't believe it. His father had never been kind, but he had never deliberately tried to be cruel before. He tightened his grip on the bottle again. "She was a better parent than you'll ever be," he hissed. "Not to mention a better person."

"A mindless whore who got what she deserved," his father said mildly.

Craig felt a pop inside him, like someone just set off in his gut enough fireworks to shame the local 4th of July display. The bottle flew from his hand like a rocket and struck his father squarely in the nose.

Unable to believe what he had just done, Craig's brief moment of rage dissolved in a hurry as he watched, mouth agape, as his father stumbled back a step and covered his injured nose with his hand.

"I'm impressed," his father exclaimed, in a voice that was many times deeper than the one he normally used. "I didn't think a wimpy little pup like you had the guts."

Craig continued to stare as the horror of what he had just done grew. The bottle wasn't large, but it was made of glass, and more than heavy enough to break something like a nose if thrown hard enough. Craig expected blood to start pouring down his father's face at any second.

Instead, his father's face suddenly changed, turning darker than its usual sallow color, and twisting into what looked like severe burn scars.

For an instant Craig was convinced he had just gone completely out of his mind and nearly ran from the room screaming, but something about the horrid figure sparked a flicker of recognition. Something about the worn hat, and the striped sweater...

That wasn't his father, it was his history report. Fred Krueger.

Craig nearly laughed in relief. He must have drunk himself to sleep, and that meant his father was still at home, unharmed. Other than the inevitable headache, everything would be fine when he woke up again.

"That's funny," Craig chuckled, mostly to himself. "I was just thinking about you."

Freddy was tapping the side of his arm, one finger at a time, a lot like his father did when he was getting impatient about something—which was often. Only they weren't fingers...they were four slender blades.

"I'm an odd thing to be on someone's mind," he commented, sounding amused.

Craig shrugged. "I was thinking when I first got here that it would be a lot more fun if you showed up. School parties are just...lame."

Freddy tapped his arm again. "So you're the one responsible for my little jump start here tonight...allow me to repay you."

His right hand darted out and Craig felt a jolt in his stomach, followed by a fiery pain that ran from one side of his midsection to the other. A feeling that was wet and warm started running down his pant legs. Stunned and shaking from the sudden attack, Craig looked down slowly.

"Oh God..."

_It's just a dream_, he told himself as he watched his guts coil around his feet like snakes. _Just a dream..._

"The last one you'll ever have."

Amidst the terror that clutched his heart, Craig again told himself that it was only a dream--a really bad one--but still just a dream. He clutched at his torn stomach and prayed to wake up. Freddy chuckled as he grabbed hold of his shirt and hoisted him over his head like he weighed less than Kelly.

"And now you'll know what a basketball feels like," he said, with laughter in his voice.

The last thing Craig saw was the back of the basketball hoop, right before his head was smashed through it. And then Craig Tyler no longer had to worry about his father, his future, or anything at all.


	10. Chapter 10

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 9: A Prison for Two**

The inside of the cafeteria was decorated with ghosts, skeletons, pumpkins, and several miles worth of black and orange crepe paper. Students dressed in costumes ranging from ghoulish to gaudy filled the room, making the large space feel crammed despite the removal of all the lunch tables.

Kelly stood off to the side and watched the party from a distance, though there really wasn't any way to escape the blaring music. Halloween tunes both new and old thumped through the massive speakers, along with screams, wails, and other spooky sound affects.

The fray of students went back and forth between playing with the game booths, pigging out at the snack tables, or moving out onto the section of the floor reserved for dancing. Dateless boy were banging into each other like they were in a mosh pit, while some of the couples were attempting to sexy dance despite warning looks from the chaperones.

Rowena was alone by the punch bowl, gleefully dancing the Charleston and laughing at the looks her fellow students were giving her. She noticed Kelly standing by herself and sashayed her way over.

"You look glum, baby girl," she noted. "Didn't you research the dances of your era? Come on, show us what you've got."

Kelly couldn't help laughing a little; Rowena had been acting oddly energetic all evening. "I'm just worried about Craig," she admitted. "He's been gone a long time, and..."

She trailed off, but Rowena nodded in understanding. "You're worried he's getting into the..."

Rowena cupped her hand and tilted her head back like she was draining a bottle of beer. Kelly nodded. "Exactly."

Kelly glanced over at Tanya and Aaron; they were playing a dart game together and looked like they were having a great time. Rowena hooked her arm around Kelly's.

"Come on. I'll help you find him."

Kelly nodded and let Rowena lead her through the crowd and out of the stuffy room. Out in the hall, she took a breath of the cooler air and sighed in relief. "I last saw him head upstairs," she said, thinking back on where they had parted.

Rowena was already heading the other way. "I'll go check if he came back down and decided to take a nap in the faculty lounge," she called, waving.

Kelly watched her go before slowly returning to the stairs. She pushed her own discomfort aside and started up the steps; she could feel creeped out later. Right now, Craig needed her.

* * *

Felicity started to get excited when she walked back down the hall where she ran into the masked weirdo and discovered that the invisible barrier she had bumped into previously was gone. Only she soon learned it wasn't really gone; it had just moved down a few feet.

How or why it moved she didn't know, but she decided to go back and check the stairs again. When she got there she discovered she couldn't reach them anymore, and she couldn't go down the hall that led to the other end of the school. She checked every space in between and realized that the invisible humming wall didn't run in a straight line like she originally thought, but curved like a sphere. "It's probably under and over me, too," she muttered. "I feel like a damn hamster, only my ball doesn't move when and where I want it to."

It made no sense, and neither did the fact she was still picking up flickers of emotions that weren't her own. The feeling of terror hadn't lasted long, but Felicity was having trouble forgetting it.

Frustrated with all the confusion, Felicity turned and kicked savagely at the nearest wall. She didn't expect it to help her situation much, but she did expect it to hurt a little. It didn't, so she kicked again, harder.

She ended up ripping part of the rubber toe guard on her shoe, but her toes themselves didn't so much as tingle. Felicity put her foot back on the ground and thought back to when she ran into the vending machine, and then back to the strange encounter she had been running away from.

Logic told her that she couldn't possibly have been attacked with real blades, but her eyes told her otherwise. She had clearly seen them pierce her body, and she had watched as the strange man raked them across his own chest. Fake blood or not, the blades left four tears in his shirt, just like there were four holes in her own shirt.

Felicity looked down and poked a finger through one of the holes as her mind churned. Invisible barriers, no pain, the ability to sense other people's emotions...what did it all mean?

"Either I'm dreaming or I'm completely insane," she said aloud. She absently poked at her unblemished stomach through the hole as she looked around.

Her eye fell on a nearby drinking fountain. It was old and needed a little maintenance, a little cleaning...or to just be replaced completely. Felicity never liked drinking out of the particular fountain due to the crack along the underside. The plastic had pulled away from the metal part, leaving a sharp edge you could catch your hand on if you weren't careful.

Steeling herself, Felicity went over and pressed her bare palm to the jagged edge and pressed hard. She felt the cool of the metal, but there was no pain as the sharp edge dug into her skin. She pressed harder and harder, until she was sure she was shoving the metal clear down to her bone. It felt funny, almost throbbed in a way, but it didn't hurt in the normal sense as she dragged her palm across the jagged edge.

Pulling her hand towards herself, Felicity continued to drag until her hand jerked loose, making her stumble back with a startled gasp. She quickly moved to the window and held her hand up in the moonlight.

A scratch ran from the bottom of her palm to up between her middle and ring fingers. Though it wasn't a scratch as much as it was a deep tear, looking no different than the slender line she made when she sliced into an apple. Unable to believe her eyes, Felicity reached up and spread the torn flesh with her fingertips.

She expected the wound to start gushing blood, but there wasn't a single drop. And as she stood there staring at the moist-looking insides of the rip in her flesh, the skin began drawing back together, as neatly and swiftly as a zipper on a coat.

Felicity waited until the wound vanished completely before balling her fist and leaning against the cool brick of the wall. There was one reason that explained all the weirdness she had seen this night, and it shook her to her very core.

"I'm dead," she whispered, her voice trembling. "I don't know how, but I'm dead..."

It all made sense now. She couldn't feel pain if she was already dead, and she couldn't leave the school because she was trapped somehow. Trapped between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead.

Or, if the laughter and music meant anything, trapped _in_ the realm of the living. So where did that leave her? Was she only a ghost, doomed to watch the people who hated her in life as they went about the daily business, completely oblivious of her?

"Guess this is my own personal hell," she sniffed.

She was ready to curl up on the floor and cry, but something occurred to her. That oddball she had run into earlier had been able to see her...and he didn't seem to think she was dead.

Felicity glanced at her perfect hand again; she _had_ to be dead, though. Only figuring this out raised a whole new batch of questions, and she wasn't going to find any answers if she sat around crying.

She was just starting to move away from the wall when she heard a buzzing near her ear. She quickly tried to step back, but she was struck by the electric-like force she was growing all too familiar with. No doubt about it, the weird barrier moved around. And, she discovered as she hastily backed away, it didn't plan to stop any time soon.

Fortunately it wasn't moving very fast, and Felicity was able to keep to a safe distance by jogging down the hall. The spherical field continued in that direction until she was able to turn the corner. As she did, Felicity felt something deep inside her, almost like someone had reached out and tugged at her heart.

Felicity slowed her pace a little, but the feeling persisted. It wasn't painful or intrusive, it just felt strange, like someone was leading her along by her insides. Even though she was in danger of bumping into the barrier again, she started walking backwards; the feeling grew stronger.

She had no idea what it all meant, but she hadn't anything else to do right now, so she started walking again in the hopes she would find whatever was causing the tugging sensation when the weird sphere stopped moving again.

* * *

Freddy took a step back to admire his own handiwork, something he didn't often have the chance to do, at least not in the real world.

The dripping blood, already turning cold, had collected into a massive puddle beneath the basketball hoop. The lovely liquid was probably staining the polished floor crimson that very moment.

The body placement was even more admirable. The reluctant athletic star was hanging through the backboard with a piece of it lodged permanently in his brain, and one arm dangled limply over the basket, as if he had made a valiant effort to score one last time before the end. His guts hung from the hoop like garland on a Christmas tree.

Freddy was still studying the pleasing display when he heard a faint buzzing near his left ear, sounding sort of like a fly crossed with the hum of a power line. An instant later something slammed into his side so hard he almost went sprawling.

The strange impact left a lingering sensation in his leg that burned almost like fire, a feeling he knew all too well. The feeling persisted and the buzzing loomed closer; he couldn't see a thing, but there was definitely something moving toward him.

Scowling, he backed away, but the invisible force was persistent. He had to keep backing away, until he had backed clear out of the room. Out in the corridor, he turned and started walking briskly down the hall, muttering to himself along the way.

His quiet curses were cut short as he suddenly collided with the identical twin of whatever was lurking in the basketball court. Cursing again, loudly this time, he looked around him while clutching his still stinging face.

The hallway was dark and appeared to be empty, but there was a buzzing sound here, too. This was a new obstacle for him, and an awfully odd one to find in the real world, but he wasn't really worried. He had the new ability to dissolve his earthly body and go wherever he pleased in the dream world, so with a little focus of thought he could--

Freddy saw white for a second as a feeling akin to giving a bundle of live wires a bear hug blasted him back into reality. This time he fell to the floor in a throbbing heap, his head twirling around like he had just finished a drinking bender for the ages. Spots of color were dancing in front of his eyes, but he could still see well enough to notice that his molecules were having trouble putting themselves back together.

His body flickered like a dying light bulb, switching back and forth between solid and translucent. Fortunately, everything straightened out again as soon as the pain disappeared, several seconds later. As he brushed himself off and straightened his hat for the second time that night, he felt glad that no one was around to watch him right now.

Or so he thought.

"Looks like you're having about as much fun as I am," an amused voice behind him said.

Freddy spun like a top, right hand raised to strike, but he paused when he recognized the speaker.

It was the same girl he had stabbed earlier, and she looked every bit as lively as she had when she'd tried to knock him through the window. And she looked even less afraid now than she did then, which was just plain annoying.

"Don't get so pissed," she told him, eyeing his stormy expression. "I was just making an observation. It kind of makes me happy to see someone else understands what I've been going through here tonight."

Freddy absently tapped his shoulder with a single blade as he eyed the strange girl warily; this night was getting weirder by the minute. And did she just say she was _happy_ to see him?

"I was talking about that," the girl said, pointing.

Freddy glanced behind him, which was just as empty and shadowy as it was a moment go. "About _what_?"

She better not be trying to trick him or something, because this time he was going to make sure he didn't miss.

The pint-sized teen shrugged and stuffed her slender hands in the pockets of her denim jacket. "You can't see it, but it sure stings like a bitch, huh?"

_Now_ he understood what she was trying to say. The invisible force lurking the halls wasn't solely his problem like he first assumed. And if he didn't know any better, it sounded like this puny kid was offering to help him figure out exactly what was going on.

He never got the chance to ask; someone else suddenly showed up, someone with a rapidly shrinking hairline and a middle that was softening even faster.

The middle-aged man stopped in his tracks and stared dumbly at the seemingly fearless blonde. "Miss Masters? Is that you? Where in the world have you been hiding for the last four months?"


	11. Chapter 11

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 10: A Reluctant Alliance**

Felicity was so stunned she couldn't speak for a moment. With everything that was going on, it was a shock to suddenly run into someone she knew. Plus this placated her worry that no one else could see her; for a moment she had been concerned that the only person she would be able to talk to for the rest of her unlife was the knife-wielding nutcase, and that idea didn't appeal to her one bit.

Principal Adwell was shaking his head, looking as stunned as she felt. "I'm shocked, Miss Masters," he declared. "Simply shocked. All this time we've been worried that something horrible had happened to you, and yet here you are. And on another holiday, no less. There's a lot more to life than parties, you know."

Felicity got over her shock in a hurry. "Excuse me? I think you're a little confused, s_ir_."

But Principal Adwell continued to shake his head. "And what about your poor mother? She would be devastated if she had known she spent all that time working herself into a frenzy while you were probably never in any real danger—other than the danger of garnering an early criminal record for such irresponsible behavior, of course."

"There are more important things to do than attend school," said Felicity, through clenched teeth.

"You might think so now, but when you get to be my age..."

The aging man continued to prattle on about turning into a mature, responsible adult, but Felicity was too angry to listen. She was tempted to just come out and say, "I missed school for four months because I died, stupid," but decided not to. That would probably just convince him that she was skipping school to get drunk, or stoned, or both.

While the rotund school principal talked, Felicity discreetly glanced around, but other than the two of them the hallway was empty. Just where had that gloved goofball disappeared to?

"Anyway, you're going to have a _lot_ of makeup work to do the next time you come to class," said Principal Adwell, cutting his own lecture short.

Felicity watched him walk away, muttering under his breath to himself. She noted that he passed easily through the invisible barrier at the end of the hall, without any sign that he even knew it existed. She went over and listened closely; the faint buzz was still present near the corner of the corridor.

Felicity stepped away from the infuriating obstruction and turned around, eyes scanning the empty air. "Hey, skinny," she called out loudly.

Her words caused her fellow member of the undead to reappear in a hurry. There were no changes of the light or shivers in the air, like something out of the movies. He simply appeared out of nowhere in less time than it took to blink her eyes.

"You better watch that mouth of yours," he growled.

"Just making sure I had your attention. Though you have to admit, you _are_ skinny."

"A moment ago I was thinking about asking what you know, but now I think I'll just kill you."

"I'm already dead," Felicity said calmly.

He gave her a dirty look. "You don't look very dead to me. I should slit you from navel to nose for insulting my intelligence like that."

"You already tried—remember?"

As she spoke, Felicity tugged on the end of her shirt, displaying the four tears. She then lifted the shirt upwards, exposing her wound-free midsection.

"It's pretty obvious at this point that you're dead, too," she went on, lowering her shirt again. "You must be; why else would you be bumping into that weird energy that's around here? The dippy principal didn't seem to be bothered by it. Not only that," she added, "I haven't forgotten that you cut yourself up earlier. If you were alive, you wouldn't heal up that fast."

Felicity was having a hard time understanding why that was. She was also having a hard time figuring out how he had fixed his shirt, too. But she was positive about one thing; the invisible buzzing she kept bumping into only affected the dead.

"Well, you're right," he said, at length. "I _am_ dead. I've been dead for a lot longer than a kid like you has been alive."

"So you would be an expert on the subject, then."

"A lot more than someone who only just reentered the land of the living earlier tonight," the fellow in the oddly-colored sweater declared with a smirk.

Felicity eyed him suspiciously. "How did you know I just woke up tonight?"

"You told me a minute ago, in a roundabout way."

"Oh."

Feeling silly, Felicity hurried on. "Anyway, I checked around as best as I could, and it doesn't look like there's any way around those energy fields. This is just a guess, but I think it's all one piece, like a sphere. So we won't be able to pass under it or something."

"Kind of hard to burrow under the floor, anyway," was the sarcastic response.

Felicity rolled her eyes. "I wasn't suggesting that we should."

"So exactly what _are_ you suggesting?"

Felicity grew quiet for a moment. She thought about the weird pulling sensation she felt when the energy sphere moved, but she wasn't sure she should mention that. She didn't know if she could describe it in words, let alone if it was really connected to the creation of the energy they were trapped in. "I'm not really sure," she admitted. "I'm just trying to sort what happened to me, and why I got here so suddenly. And I may not be an expert on the subject like you are, but I'm guessing the odds of us both showing up here on the same night are pretty damn slim."

The undead stranger was tapping his chin with the blunt side of one of his blades, which Felicity assumed meant he was thinking. "I ran into someone who knew who I was, but I don't think he was the type to bring me back deliberately."

"I don't think either of us were brought back deliberately," said Felicity with a sniff. "Let's just focus on figuring out how to get out of here for now. I'm Felicity, by the way."

"Just call me Freddy. Everyone else does."

Despite all the questions muddling her brain, Felicity giggled. "That's cute."

"Cute?" Freddy practically spat the word back at her. "I'm a lot of things, but I am _not_ cute."

Felicity hardly ever rolled her eyes when she was alive, but something about this guy was quickly turning it into a habit. "I didn't mean _you_. I was talking about how both our names start with 'F'. 'Cute' isn't exactly the adjective that comes to mind when I look at you. You don't even know how to dress for the right holiday."

Freddy glanced down at his own green-and-red striped sweater with a scowl. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Felicity couldn't tell if he was joking or not, so she decided to let it go. "Never mind. I really can't be sure, since I've been feeling a lot of weird things lately, but--"

"Goes with the territory," cut in Freddy.

"Uh, right. But I felt something else when the sphere moved before. Sort of like...being pulled along by an ocean wave, I guess, but from the inside."

She was pretty sure that didn't make any sense, and by the incredulous look on his face, Freddy didn't think it made sense, either. "I didn't feel anything," he muttered.

"Well, _I_ did. I'm still just making guesses here, but I think something is creating the sphere. If we can find it, maybe we can--"

"You know, that really pisses me off," Freddy suddenly said angrily.

Felicity frowned a little; she knew she was dead now and didn't have much to worry about, but he was still kind of scary when he was mad. "I'm not trying to piss you off," she said defensively. "I was just--"

"I wasn't talking about _that_," he snapped. "I woke up tonight with more freedom than I've ever had in either life or death, and I can't enjoy it thanks to this..." he made a circular motion with his left index finger. "...thing."

"I'm not happy about it either," said Felicity. "And since we're in the same boat and all, we may as well try to get rid of it together."

"Suppose we can't?" Freddy wanted to know. "Tell me, since you seem to have all the answers tonight; what do we do if it turns out we're stuck in this thing forever?"

Felicity hadn't thought of that. In her mind she was thinking of how and when they would get rid of the sphere, not _if_ they would get rid of it. The thought of being pushed around by it for all eternity chilled her to the bone.

"Let's just tackle one problem at a time," she said, a bit weakly.

"Fine," agreed Freddy, with obvious reluctance. "Now, if you're finished boring me with outdated metaphors, I want to check something."

Without waiting for Felicity's response, he reached over and thrust a single blade between two of her ribs. Felicity watched blandly as he continued to poke at her midsection. "Are you finished?" she asked dryly after a dozen fresh holes joined the previous four.

"Almost."

Freddy stabbed above her left breast, piercing her heart. He finally withdrew and stopped his jabbing, but not until after he'd wiggled the blade around for a minute or so. "Just checking. I guess you really are dead."

"I said so, didn't ?" said Felicity wearily. "I sure hope you got that out of your system. But if you didn't, I feel I should mention that your little knives don't sting even half as bad as that energy flowing over there does."

Mentioning it reminded her of what Freddy just said. The idea that they were both stuck there forever nearly made her weak in the knees. High school was the last place on earth she wanted to spend eternity in, assuming that the sphere only moved within its walls. If it traveled outside them, perhaps spanning the entire globe over time...

It didn't didn't matter either way; she was pretty sure she was stuck with the worst person she could possibly be stuck with. Despite that, Felcity still found the thought that she wasn't alone comforting. Facing eternity with someone like Freddy was still better than facing it all by herself.

At least, she hoped it was.


	12. Chapter 12

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 11: An Old-Fashioned Seduction**

Rowena covered another jaw-popping yawn as she poked her head into what felt like the hundredth classroom she had checked. "Come on, Craig," she called out loudly. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."

No one answered, so she closed the door with a bang and started back the other way. She had checked every room on the ground floor and either Craig just wasn't around, or he was being a real ass and not coming out.

"I should kick him in the nuts for making Kelly worry like this," she grumbled.

Yawning again, she mounted the stairs and went up to the second floor. Her feet tangled around themselves as she reached the top step, forcing her to grab the railing to steady herself. The young artist giggled and straightened her wig.

Rowena felt warm and sleepy, and she walked in uneven steps as she moved down the long hall. She didn't know how they had managed it with so many teachers around, but someone had spiked the punch.

She wasn't drunk, but she definitely had a buzz, and she giggled again as she leaned a hand against the wall for support. Scratching her brightly polished nails along the bricks as she walked, Rowena called loudly for Craig.

When no one answered, she stopped walking and slumped against the wall. "Stupid jerk," Rowena muttered under her breath.

Well, he was Kelly's boyfriend, not hers. Let her worry about it. Right now...Rowena wanted to sleep.

* * *

With her hands on her hips and her lips tightly pursed, Felicity tapped her foot as she thought. "If there's one right here, and one way back there," she began thoughtfully, pointing as she spoke, "then I'd say we have about thirty feet to work with in between."

"Although," she went on, reaching her hand out and slowly passing it through the air. "Judging by the sharp curve right here, I'd also say we're right near the top of this invisible circle. And like anything round, it's bound to be wider near the middle."

With her fingertip several inches from the buzzing energy, Felicity traced a line in the air until she was pointing to the front of the school. "We can't pass through walls, so we'll just have to head...that way," she finished, pointing at the set of double doors that lead into the pool room.

When no one agreed with or added to her decision, Felicity turned around to look at her--for lack of a better term--new companion.

He was leaning against the wall a few feet from the pool room doors with his arms crossed, sulking harder than a sixteen-year-old who had been forbidden to drive his father's car. She was pretty sure he wasn't that young, but his real age was kind of hard to read.

When she first saw him earlier that evening, she thought he was wearing some weird Halloween mask, but she had politely failed to mention that she had since figured out that the unfortunate mess above his shoulders was his real face. She was almost painfully curious about just what had happened to him, but didn't think now was a very good time to ask. His foul mood was practically wafting through the air like smoke.

Practically. She wasn't getting so much as a hint of what he was feeling, though it was plainer than day that he was pissed off. She discreetly tried to concentrate on the emotions flitting around the school, but all she could pick up were the happy feelings coming from the teens still partying downstairs. Apparently, her new ability didn't work on someone who was as dead as she was.

"I don't know about you," she said loudly, "but I'm going to go look for whatever is creating this invisible sphere we're in. The sooner we find it, the sooner we can get rid of the sphere...I hope."

Freddy suddenly moved, but not to follow her instructions. His sullen expression was gone, and in its place was a grin. An extremely wicked grin, Felicity thought.

"Yeah, you go do that. I'll meet up with you later."

Without bothering to explain where he was going, he vanished from sight again. Felicity waved her hand in the space he had been standing in, but it was no use; he was just plain gone. She wished she knew just how he did that, but she was too annoyed to ask.

"Fine," she muttered, to no one in particular. "If I figure out how to get out of here first, I'll be damned if I'm sticking around to help you, you lousy..."

Still muttering to herself, Felicity pushed the heavy doors open and stalked into the pool room.

* * *

Though it was still an unfamiliar and strange experience, Freddy was already growing used to dissolving his new reality-bound body and easing his conscious into the mind of an unsuspecting dreamer. It was an unexpected change that would be all too welcome—if he weren't caged within a bizarre sphere of energy from an unknown source and forced to move and stop as it mutely dictated.

It was an annoying situation, one he planned to correct the instant the possibility presented itself. In the meantime, he was forced to prey only on those who either wandered or fell asleep within his reach.

Fortunately, taking a break from the noisy party downstairs to grab a few winks seemed a popular idea tonight. And if the haze that rimmed the sleeper's mind meant anything, they were just like the last teen he played with—intoxicated.

Only he soon discovered the similarities ended there. He materialized in the sleeper's mind to find the dreamscape already laid out for him, in a sharp, crystalline clarity that didn't exist in the real world and was rarely seen in dreams.

The attention to detail was formulaic and meticulous, as though great thought had gone into every aspect of the dream, right down to the wispy grass beneath his feet. Said grass ruffled every few seconds under a whisper-soft breeze that blew playfully up and over the hill that crested just below the perfect pearl that was the moon. Below the moon was a giant oak tree, with a trunk that looked as sturdy as it was old, and branches that seemed to reach up and brush the blue-black sky. The leaves whispered to each other as the breeze passed over them.

As if all this wasn't theatrical enough on its own, there was a cobblestone path running below the hill, a few inches from where he stood. A wrought-iron bench rested next to the path, and standing beside it was a brassy lamppost. Not a modern one with a light bulb, but a gaslight that looked like it had been plucked from downtown New York during the early 1900s.

Clearly, this dreamer had seen one too many old movies.

Not that Freddy particularly cared. What bugged him was the fact that the landscape wasn't the muddled concoction of the dreamer's subconscious; it was a product of the dreamer's own design. Which could only mean one thing...

He had stepped into the mind of a lucid dreamer.

Lucid dreamers were rare, and ones who dreamed with awareness almost every night were rarer still. Judging by the relaxed nature of the dreamer's mind, the occurrence was so common she didn't even know that being aware she was dreaming and being able to manipulate her surroundings wasn't the ordinary way to dream.

It wasn't often that Freddy felt frustrated, but he was rapidly growing tired of all these surprises. Lucid dreamers weren't like ordinary ones; they had strengths others didn't, and they had the annoying habit of turning the environment against him.

Not that he was worried. Battling one was usually aggravating and a waste of time, but they still met the same fate all the others did. They were like fish floundering on dry land; they held on to the hope that struggling would keep them alive, but in the end they would find that nothing could save them from death.

The image made Freddy smile to himself. And this one had a particularly strong will. He imagined she would put up quite a fight when he found her, but...

This train of thought came to a halt as he received the second surprise since he first arrived, mere moments ago; the dreamer was already here. She had been standing only a few feet away the entire time, watching him. So much for the gleeful sneak attack.

Only as the pristine silence continued on without interruption, he decided that she hadn't noticed him after all; no one stayed so completely relaxed when _he_ came 'round.

The statuesque girl leaning languidly against the trunk of the oak tree was the very picture of calmness. Her upturned face was as white as the moon, the chestnut brown curls tumbling down over her bare shoulders seemed to glow. The filmy gown she wore was brief and covered in intricate beadwork from a bygone era. Her luminous green eyes mirrored the starlight.

Her appearance was probably a bigger fabrication than the landscape. No one was _that_ beautiful...

Only she was. As Freddy snaked his mind into the thoughts and memories buried deep within her inner self, he saw that she kept her true self hidden from the world. Using hair dye and eyeliner, she formed a picture people expected to see, because she knew she wouldn't get the reaction she desired if she didn't. The appearance she adopted and the attitude she put on made people a little afraid of her, and fear was the quickest route to respect. Which was something she craved to an almost unhealthy degree.

And there was something else, something buried deep and locked away in the most secret, private place in her heart, something dark and oh so taboo.

He was eager to pry apart her mental defenses and find out just what that something was, but her barriers were phenomenal, no doubt due to the inner discipline honed from a lifetime of studying witchcraft. Unlike the rest of her personality, she flaunted that part of herself at the very front of her mind, where any addle-brained idiot could detect it just by looking into her eyes.

It was a challenging mind to unravel, but with a little more effort he knew he could--

"Hey there, sexy."

Freddy stopped his mental prying and looked over his shoulder, expecting to see some dashing imbecile wearing a suit and gloves and riding a white horse. The grassy field behind him was empty.

The girl laughed. Not the harsh laugh or unpleasant chuckle she used in front of her friends, but her real laugh, which couldn't be more musical and fairylike if she tried. The sound made Freddy grind his claws together in rage; he had been doing this for a very long time, but this was the first time his future victim actually laughed at him. She was either completely stupid or completely insane, and he no longer cared about figuring out which one it was. The hell with her secrets...he was going to find out how her innards looked hanging out in front of her pretty dress.

The girl laughed again as she moved away from the tree. "Don't be shy, there's nobody here but us."

Freddy thought that was a strange thing to say, but not nearly as strange as the tone of her voice. It was soft and playful, almost seductive. She moved soundlessly over to the bench and sat, her skirt swirling around her feet in the breeze.

"Don't be shy," she said again. "I've been waiting for you for a long time. You shouldn't keep me in suspense."

It was Freddy's turn to laugh; she was so sure of herself, so full of the confidence she lacked in real life. "Princess, there's nothing that can prepare you for something like me, not even that wild imagination of yours."

The supine girl laughed musically again and leaned back until she was lying across the bench. "I wouldn't be so sure. My imagination is wilder than you might think, but if you think you can surprise me..."

As she spoke, she slowly drew the skirt of her gown until it was up past her knees. Freddy's expression was blank as he watched her run a bare toe along her satiny calf.

He had seen many different reactions to his presence over the years, but he was pretty sure this was the first time one of his intended victims decided to offer herself to him.

Freddy slowly raised his gloved hand and waggled his fingers, but the overwhelming fancy of the environment managed to rob his weapon of its usual affect and made it look cheap and nonthreatening. "That really isn't what I came here for," he said, a little lamely.

The girl laughed her musical laugh; she had her skirt up to her thighs, which seemed to glow in the moonlight. "Well, you're just going to have to change your plans, then."

She still thought she was in control. Typical lucid dreamer...

Still, passing up her offer felt like a waste of a rare opportunity. And besides, he thought as he adjusted his hat with a sly grin...

Who was he to refuse the desires of a young lady?


	13. Chapter 13

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 12: A Dance with Death**

As she stomped past the long swimming pool, Felicity suddenly felt a jolt that shook her to her core. She staggered for a moment, clutching her middle and wondering what she had run into now.

But there was nothing there to run into; it was the fear she felt earlier, only it was different somehow. Closer.

Her frightened eyes spanned the room, drifting across the water. Moonlight glinted off the surface, an image that was both soothing and serene. Felicity loved swimming, but for some reason the sight of the pool terrified her.

An image popped into her mind, just like the one from before. Another pushed its way in, and another, until the scattered bits of images merged together. Pieces of sound joined them, until Felicity again felt like she was seeing a movie through her own eyes, and she was helpless to do anything but watch.

* * *

"_Stupid jerks," Felicity muttered as she stormed into the pool room. She had been having fun at the party downstairs, until one of the older students decided to prove what an asshole he was and told everyone her mother slept around in order to get her daughter into high school. She must have, because Felicity couldn't possibly be smart enough to actually get a real scholarship._

_Everyone agreed—and laughed. Felicity was used to being made fun of and didn't pay attention anymore, but she exploded when anyone dared drag her mother into it._

_She told them to all go to hell and stomped off. She didn't think anyone would follow her, but someone did; Kelly Anderson._

"_Don't cry," she said, even though Felicity was no where near crying. "They're just mean. Just ignore them."_

_Felicity couldn't believe how fake Kelly was. She had plenty to say about every girl in school, so long as it was behind their back. And she wasn't very good at it...Felicity knew full well that Kelly thought she was a liar and a cheat. So she was one of the only kids in town who paid more attention to her books than to gossip and parties...why was that so horrible?_

"_Cut the crap," Felicity told her bluntly. "No one believes that you really care."_

_Kelly wasn't even a person. She was a doll, one whose every motion was controlled by her mother. A perfect match for her puppet of a boyfriend._

_The cheerleader's gentle expression vanished in a hurry. "I was just trying to help," she snapped. "You know, you'd have more friends if you weren't such a bitch all the time."_

_Speak of the devils...Kelly's own posse of friends had followed her. "Don't take it as an insult," Aaron Stevens told her. "That's just a school boy's way of saying your mother is hot. If I were a little older, I'd totally do her."_

_The girls pretended to be horrified, but Felicity could tell they were hiding laughter behind their hands. Craig Tyler stood to the side, indulging in his favorite pastime; getting drunk._

"_Screw you, Stevens."_

_Aaron just laughed. "I wish. Try as I might, I'd say the chances of me losing my virginity before I die are about as slim as Craig knowing what feckless means."_

_Craig stopped draining his bottle long enough to glare. "I think that better describes you."_

_Aaron rolled his eyes while Kelly and Rowena started giggling. "Uh, I said _feckless_, genius."_

_He frowned at the basketball star, but he was soon laughing along with the girls. Felicity noticed that they had somehow made a ring around her, making her feel trapped. She didn't like feeling trapped._

"_No girl in her right mind would sleep with you anyway," she snapped. "Everyone knows you're responsible for the prank that put a teacher in the hospital last year. I know _I'd_ never go to bed with a guy who might set off a cherry bomb in my room, just for the fun of it."_

_Her accusation just made Aaron laugh harder. "Like you would sleep with anyone anyway. Everyone also knows that you're an even bigger virgin than I am. At least I've gotten tongue action. You've gotten, what...practice with your bathroom mirror?"_

"_Oh, stop," Kelly told him, though she was still laughing. Laughing at her._

_Felicity wanted to hit her, but she forced her hands to stay at her side as she tried to get away. She bumped into Craig, who reeked of alcohol. "He's right, though," Rowena said. "You need to loosen up a little, or you're going to wind up living alone with a smelly house full of cats. Oh, right...you're a dog person. Not much of an improvement, really."_

"_At least I'm not digging up graves and violating someone's ancestors," Felicity said hotly._

_Rowena's amused look melted. "Watch it," she hissed, sounding like a cat herself. "Or I'll put a hex on you that you'll never recover from."_

_Aaron was sniggering. "She has a point, though."_

"_You want a hex too, little boy?"_

_Craig suddenly wrapped his arm around Felicity's neck. She cringed as leaned to speak in her ear, his rank breath uncomfortably close to her nose. "See? Even friends disagree. Fighting can bring you closer together."_

"_Totally," said Aaron, grabbing Rowena and giving her a noogie. She looked ready to strangle him, but Kelly just laughed._

_Felicity had had enough, and she wrenched out of Craig's grasp as she said, "I'd rather be dead than have friends like you."_

_None of the others paid her words much mind, but she felt Craig slap a strong hand on her shoulder. "That can be arranged," he growled into her ear._

_And he threw her into the pool._

_Felicity thrashed for a moment before gathering her bearings and pushing herself to the surface. Only she couldn't reach it. Something was in the way, blocking her. Pushing her back down._

_She struggled and fought, but her strength ebbed quickly. She had swallowed a lot of water when she first hit, and had very little air in her lungs. The only thing she could see as she sank to the bottom of the pool were a sea of bubbles, which slowly faded from sight as her vision turned dark._

_

* * *

  
_

Felicity fell to her knees as the memory faded. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she stared, eyes unseeing, at the water in front of her.

She couldn't believe it. She was really, truly dead, dead at sixteen. She never had the chance to do anything, go anywhere, or be anything at all. Sure, her instructor said she was the most skillful dancer she had ever seen, but she never got to go out and see exactly what she could do with that skill. She had been waiting to finish high school before she tried getting a dancing job.

It was all for nothing. What could she possibly hope to do in death? And it was all because of...

Felicity wiped her eyes and stumbled out of the pool room. She didn't know what she was going to do now, but she knew she needed to figure out how to get out of the school. She was just about to take a step down the hall when a yell rang through the air.

Felicity paused and made a face. The yell sounded strange, sort of like...

Footsteps made her turn around. Noisy, rapid footsteps. The person rounded a corner and Felicity found herself face to face with Kelly Anderson.

The bleached blonde was dressed in a go-go outfit, complete with a brightly colored mini dress, white go-go boots, and her long hair teased in the back. Felicity stepped to the side as Kelly rushed by, so distracted she failed to notice the dead girl completely.

Felicity didn't fail to notice the large blue stone hanging from the cheerleader's neck. As Kelly hurried down the hall, Felicity felt the same tug as before, only much stronger. Kelly rounded another corner and disappeared from sight, and Felicity felt an overwhelming urge to follow her, as if the older girl were taking away something she desperately needed.

The small dancer was about to chase after that feeling when Freddy suddenly materialized beside her. "Did you notice?" she asked, not bothering to wonder where he had gone. "Kelly's wearing a pretty funky necklace."

Freddy cocked a hairless eyebrow. "And this matters because...?"

"Well, I don't know how or why, but I think it has something to do with our little problem."

She didn't know how she knew, just like she didn't know how could now sense human emotion. She just did.

"By the way," she added casually, "if she really is the source of the sphere, she happens to be moving _that _way. Quite quickly, I might add."

The meaning of her words hit him a split second before the sphere did. Knocked clear off their feet, they both went sprawling to the floor. Felicity tried to scramble back to her feet, but the sphere was moving too fast, and kept knocking her down again. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that Freddy was having the same problem.

They were both banged against lockers and garbage cans as they were painfully dragged down the hall. Felicity wound up on her back and was shoved along headfirst with her feet in the air, and she was pretty sure she would never be able to sit down again.

She suddenly spied the unpleasant sight of a closed door ahead of her, looming up fast and upsidedown. Felicity quickly flipped over, ignoring the pain in her legs and rear as she tried again to get to her feet. Kelly must have decided to run; the sphere just kept moving faster.

Felicity lunged as hard as she could, crawled for a few inches and managed to stand. She reached out and shoved the horizontal handle of the door—only to discover it was locked.

"Oh, shit," she muttered.

The other door was unlocked and partway open, but the sphere was already brushing her back. To her right, Freddy was in a similarly bad position; he had drifted too far to the side and was in danger of being crushed against the wall next to the open door.

Felicity's back felt like it was on fire, and she was pretty sure a few ribs had cracked. Grunting, she stretched her hand out. "Here," she ordered, wincing. "If we both pull, maybe we can get each other to the opening."

Freddy looked at her hand like he was considering it, then suddenly snapped his fingers together like he had just remembered something. An instant later, he vanished from sight. Felicity imagined him reappearing on the other side of the door, safe and sound.

"You _bastard_."

The sphere was pushing so hard now Felicity knew she wouldn't be able to breathe, if she had still needed to use her lungs. She desperately grabbed the side of the closed door and started to pull, but she was so badly pinned she could hardly move.

As she continued to pull with all her might, she heard the sounds of her bones cracking and popping as they were crushed, and images of herself being smashed until she was a gooey puddle flashed through her mind. She was going to be smashed to a liquid and then squish beneath the crack of the door...

She suddenly popped free so fast she felt like a bar of soap squishing through someone's fingers as she briefly fell through the air and landed on the other side of the threshold. One leg dangled in front of her face at an impossible angle.

And then she was being pushed again, her other leg bending in the wrong direction. Felicity held still, resigned to her fate, and waited until the sphere stopped before she even dared tried to move.

She watched another long row of lockers as she slid by, noting that the pace was slowing down. It stopped abruptly, and she lay in the middle of the hall, feeling like a doll or mannequin whose limbs had been attached all wrong.

Felicity lay still for a while longer, muttering to herself as she listened to the sounds of her bones putting themselves back together.

"If that stupid turd wasn't already dead, I'd kill him myself."


	14. Chapter 14

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 13: The Thirst for Blood  
**

Kelly came to a halt so suddenly her white leather boots squeaked across the linoleum floor. "What the hell are you doing?"

Rowena, whom she had been so concerned about mere seconds ago, was curled up on top of a nearby table that looked like it had once been used for displaying dioramas made by students. What was left of the display was crushed as Rowena sat up. She clumsily straightened her cloche hat, which had drooped down in front of her left eye.

"I was just taking a little nap," said Rowena, her voice oddly light and youthful. She giggled to herself as she smoothed the ends of her blond wig.

Kelly scoffed in disgust. "Are you drunk?"

"Of course not. I'm just a little..."

Rowena trailed off and pinched her thumb and forefinger together, as if to say she was only a smidgen drunk. Kelly scoffed again and began stomping away. "I can see you still haven't found Craig, so I'm going to go check the basketball court," she called over her shoulder.

Yawning, Rowena nodded wordlessly. She knew she should get up and help Kelly, but in her current state she probably wouldn't be much help. Besides, she kind of hoped she would start dreaming again if she went back to sleep.

* * *

"Can you believe they actually have Bobbing for Apples?"

Tanya looked up from the doll she just won and glanced over at the small tank of water. Instead of playing the game properly, two boys were trying to dunk each other. "Our teachers are not of this earth," she said dryly.

"Tell me about it," muttered Aaron. "And speaking of not of this earth, did the girls ever come back?"

"No, I don't believe they have. And it must be hard," Tanya went on, in the same dry tone, "to pick on someone one likes as much as you obviously like Rowena."

Instead of denying it, Aaron sighed and shrugged a little. "I know. Pathetic, huh?"

"Not necessarily. I bet the two of you would compliment each other quite nicely, if you gave it a chance."

Aaron rolled his eyes. "Please. You know as well as I do that I'm too fresh and active for her taste."

Tanya didn't reply. Instead, she headed over to a table covered in clear plastic bowls. She picked up a ping-pong ball from a tray on the floor, tossed it into the air and caught it. "I don't know about you, but I could always use a few more goldfish," she said with a smile.

* * *

"Stupid turd," Felicity muttered to herself as she stomped down the corridor. "Stupid, inconsiderate, selfish..."

The small blonde suddenly stopped spouting negative adjectives and forgot about being angry at Freddy as she caught sight of something that made her feel much, much worse.

Lying curled up on a table covered in an assortment of junk was Rowena Madison.

Felicity had neither liked nor disliked the older girl during her time in high school. Like most seniors, Rowena had all but ignored her that year. Students craving attention wouldn't have liked this one bit, but Felicity preferred going unnoticed when the alternative was being tormented or ridiculed.

Rowena had never done anything to make Felicity dislike her—until now. And ironically, it was doing exactly this which made Felicity positively loathe her; nothing.

She hadn't done a thing to stop Craig. She just stood there and watched, just like the others. And it was obvious from his reaction that Principal Adwell had no idea what had happened to her, so that meant none of them ever told. No one knew, not even Felicity's poor mother, who had probably spent the last four months beside herself with worry. Rowena Madison knew she was dead, and she hadn't said or done a thing about it.

Felicity went closer and stared down at the prone figure still sleeping in blissful ignorance. The young girl had felt anger before, but even her biggest fits of temper were nothing compared to the intense heat of rage and hatred that slowly rose up inside her, so powerfully she began to tremble uncontrollably. She clenched both fists as she continued to stare at the napping witch, her vision narrowing until it was as if nothing else existed in the world but her.

It wasn't fair. Because of her lack of action, Rowena was just as guilty of murder as Craig, yet she was allowed to go on living. And Felicity, who had never done anything to hurt anyone her entire life was now without one. It wasn't fair at all.

"Well," Felicity murmured under her breath, "I'm just going to have to fix this little injustice somehow."

The dark direction her thoughts were taking surprised her a little. Before the idea forming in her mind could fully develop, she felt something sharp tap her on the shoulder.

Felicity let out a huff of air, annoyed. "I'm fine now, thanks for asking," she said sarcastically.

"Oh, I knew you'd make it out okay without me," Freddy said casually.

Felicity turned away from the still sleeping Rowena, barely managing to contain her urge to elbow Freddy in the gut as she brushed past him. "Just where do you go when you disappear like that?" she asked instead.

Freddy was busy picking his teeth with his index blade. "In there," he said, vaguely indicating to Rowena with his other hand.

Felicity looked down at the sleeping witch again, not understanding. "What do you mean, 'in there'? In what—people?"

"Exactly. I enjoying playing in the little worlds they create for me."

Felicity continued to stare, confused, until the silly smile on Rowena's face gave her a clue to the meaning behind his cryptic words. "So," she began slowly, "you're saying you can enter dreams?"

"Only at certain times."

"When's that?" Felicity asked curiously.

"When they're asleep, genius."

Felicity rolled her eyes. "Funny."

"I thought so."

Rowena suddenly curled her knees to her chest and rolled onto her back. Felicity thought she was about to wake up, but she murmured something and went on sleeping. "So you enter the dreams of young girls so you can nail them? That's so perverted."

"That's not why I do it," Freddy said hotly. "This isn't just for show, you know."

He whipped his glove in front of her eyes and waved the blades at her, making them glint in the moonlight. "I am a killer," he declared calmly, with a hint of pride in his eyes. "I killed for most of my life and all of my death. I tried a lot of hobbies over the years, but this has them all beat."

If she had still been alive, Felicity imagined that this proud announcement would have been more than a little frightening to her. Now that she was dead and had no mortal concerns anymore, this news was only mildly interesting. She had figured as much after he had treated her like a pincushion earlier.

"Out of curiosity," she said, nodding towards the girl still sleeping beside them, "why did you decide to bone Rowena instead kill her?"

"What makes you so sure I did?"

Felicity smiled wryly. "It's kind of obvious, really. You've got the same stupid look on your face that she does. And I'm pretty sure she was the one who yelled a little while ago...and she didn't really sound like she was in pain."

"Okay, so I made an exception. What's it to you?"

Felicity continued to smile. "Oh, nothing. I imagine it was something to you, though. I bet it was a shock when she spread her legs for you, huh?"

Freddy gave her a strange look. "Were you there?"

"Not hardly. But I'll let you in on a little secret; Rowena Madison is a raging necrophiliac. A walking corpse like you would make her soak her panties big time."

Now Freddy looked suspicious. "Are you serious?"

"As a terminal illness."

"If that's such a secret, how come you know about it?"

Felicity shrugged and slipped her hands into her jacket pockets as she began to explain. "I'm pretty sure over half the school knows. And Rowena knows that confirming the rumor wouldn't be very smart, but outright denying it would just make people believe it more, so she just lets people say whatever they want. Most think stuff like that is too wild to really be true, like the idea that she dissects house cats in her basement. Rumors like that grow and die all the time, and since she's a witch everyone just assumes it's par for the course."

"That's great," said Freddy, sounding as uninterested as he looked. "Would you stop with the metaphors already? They're really getting annoying."

Felicity wasn't about to say that she had learned all the phrases that were second nature to her from her mother, whom the neighbors claimed had a 'quaint, old-fashioned' way of speaking. She wasn't going to risk putting her mother on the receiving end of Freddy's sharp tongue, especially when she wasn't around to defend herself.

"I'll say whatever the hell I want," she muttered instead.

"You could," allowed Freddy. "And I could always cut off your tongue."

Remembering how easily she healed now, Felicity was tempted to tell him to go ahead and try, but she wasn't really sure if she would be able to put it back on. Thinking about it made her wonder about something else.

"Will I need to eat?" she wondered aloud. "Or go to the bathroom?"

She hadn't felt hungry since she woke up, or any of the other basic needs of the body. Having never been dead before, she had a lot of questions and very few answers. Freddy, the death expert, seemed the person to ask—if he was willing to take the time to answer.

If he planned to, he never got the chance. Their conversation was interrupted by a sudden shriek from Rowena.

Felicity turned and watched as the statuesque teen scrambled to the back of the table and flattened herself against the wall.

"I knew you'd come back for revenge," she cried, eyes wild. "I just knew it!"

Leave it to the witch to worry about something like that. "And here I'd thought you'd forgotten all about me," scoffed Felicity, unmoved by the older girl's terror.

Rowena continued to scoot along the table until she was dangerously close to tumbling off, looking like she was torn between begging for mercy or trying to make a run for it. As her green eyes, dark with fear, darted around for a way to escape, she suddenly noticed Freddy.

Felicity had never seen such a quick recovery from sheer terror before.

"Oh, it's you," said Rowena, breathing a sigh of relief.

"My, she's happy to see you," said Felicity dryly. "You must have done something right."

"I never leave a job unfinished, if that's what you mean," said Freddy smoothly.

Felicity rolled her eyes and looked at Rowena again, but she seemed to have forgotten the younger girl was even there. Felicity, on the other hand, hadn't forgotten what she had been thinking a few minutes ago.

She nudged Freddy in the ribs. "You're a killer, so get killing already."

"I'll kill her when I'm ready," snapped Freddy.

"You're waiting for her to fall asleep so you can play with her again, aren't you," Felicity accused.

"I didn't say that."

"But you were thinking it."

Freddy responded to her accusations with a fierce scowl. It was thanks to exaggerated expressions like this one that made it easy for Felicity to read what he was thinking, even without being able to sense his emotions. She decided to keep this to herself, in case it made him go deadpan on her.

"Some killer you are," she muttered, frustrated.

"I kill when I want to, not when I'm commanded to like a damn dog. And I'd have killed you ages ago if you weren't already dead."

"If that's a subtle way of saying you can't stand me; the feeling's mutual, sweetie."

Freddy opened his mouth to say something else, but he was cut off by a piercing scream that echoed through the hall like a gunshot. Felicity glanced at Rowena, who looked like she had been dozing off again despite believing she was already asleep, before looking past Freddy and down the hallway behind him.

Kelly was racing towards them, half-tripping over her own feet as she screamed and sobbed hysterically. Rowena jerked awake and looked at her in shocked confusion.

"What's wro—"

Kelly didn't answer, nor did she bother to slow down as she grabbed Rowena's hand and hauled her off the table. Rowena's hat and wig flew off as the sobbing Kelly dragged the taller girl behind her. Felicity watched as they both ran down the hall and disappeared around a corner, noting that Kelly had again failed to notice her. "I wonder what her problem is?"

"She probably found her boyfriend," Freddy said casually. "What's left of him."

Felicity turned to him in shock. "You killed Craig Tyler?"

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?"

"A problem?" echoed Felicity dumbly. "Are you kidding me? That bastard is the one who killed me. I'm so happy right now I could kiss you--if you weren't uglier than a mule's butt, of course."

Freddy clutched his own chin with his gloved hand and tilted his head like he were posing the cover of a fashion magazine. "Don't let that stop you. I never do."

"Uh, right. But we should definitely let the fact that Kelly is running full speed away from us stop unnecessary behavior of any kind for the moment."

"I don't get the connection."

Felicity wearily rolled her eyes as she started hurrying in the direction Kelly and Rowena had gone. "Weren't you listening the first time? I don't know how, but somehow that necklace Kelly is wearing is creating the sphere. Where she goes, it goes, so let's move before I get turned into a pancake again."

Catching on, Freddy hurried to catch up with her, and to escape the energy that was buzzing at his heels. "Do you think this little problem will go away if we kill her?"

Felicity was thinking the exact same thing. She didn't know what being on the same wavelength as someone as nutty as Freddy obviously was meant for her own sanity, so she just shrugged and quickened her pace.

"I'm not sure. Let's go find out."


	15. Chapter 15

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 14: The Price of Desire**

Kelly felt numb and cold as she went to stand near the cafeteria doors. It was as though all the feeling were gone from her body; she couldn't feel the floor beneath her feet, and she didn't feel any pressure or stinging even though she had her fists balled so tightly her long nails were digging into her palms.

She had her fists clenched in a weak attempt to stop the tremble that had settled into her bones after her long fit of hysterics; it wasn't working. She continued to quiver like a leaf as she stood off to the side, away from the group of students that had collected near the main doors of the school.

They were all glancing at each other with looks of shock and disbelief. Everyone was being unnaturally quiet, with only a handful of students whispering occasionally. They looked too afraid to talk. No one could believe what was happening.

Principal Adwell was standing by the doors, mopping his head with a handkerchief and muttering under his breath to himself. He wasn't used to dealing with an event of this magnitude, and it showed. He was doing his best, though; he had called the police, and now he was ushering the students back into the cafeteria.

"No one leaves until after the police arrive," he told them, his voice quavering despite his attempt to be firm. "They'll want to question all of you, so please..."

The students all shuffled back into the once joyous room with mechanical movements. No one complained, though Kelly could hear them whispering to each other that they couldn't believe Craig was actually dead. Rowena and Aaron were there, too, and they both gave her sad, sympathetic looks as they went by. Tanya followed close behind them and lingered at the door for a moment, her dark eyes brimming with tears. She was trying to be brave, but Kelly could tell she was shaken up.

Kelly couldn't believe it either. Her plans for the future had never been clear, but so far she had been able to rely on a single constant since she was small; Craig would always be there for her. The idea of facing life without him nearly made her knees buckle.

As she leaned against the wall for support, she expected herself to start crying again, but she still felt numb. Nearly emotionless. She decided she would hold off feeling anything until after she got out of here. She would wait until she was safe at home, and then she would cry over her immeasurable loss for as long as she needed to.

The students finished trickling into the cafeteria, leaving her the only student left standing in the dimly lit hall. Principal Adwell had his back to her. Kelly really wanted to be alone, so she quietly slipped by, heading down the hall towards the girl's bathroom.

* * *

"She's alone," whispered Felicity as she peered around the corner. "Now's the perfect time to strike."

"Then why aren't we going after her?" asked Freddy impatiently.

Felicity leaned further around the corner briefly before ducking safely out of sight again. "I'm making sure old Adds Well doesn't see me," she explained lowly. "Plus I'd really rather not be around when the cops show up."

Freddy snorted in her ear. "They're just cops."

"Yeah--just the cops who know I've been missing for four months. I'd really rather not have to stick around to answer a slew of questions that I...really can't answer. And will you stop leaning so close to me? Your breath _stinks_."

Freddy responded to her demand by resting his chin on her shoulder. "I still don't see what you're getting so uptight about," he said, after blowing on her cheek.

Felicity grimaced and hastily wiped the side of her face. "Do I need to spell it out for you? In case you haven't noticed, I can't just up and abandon reality like you can. If I get snatched by the cops, I won't be able to get away, not even if they decide to personally drive me home to my mother. Which would be impossible at this point anyway, unless for some extremely bizarre reason they decide to take Kelly with us."

After elbowing Freddy away, Felicity leaned around the corner again. The rotund principal was gone from his post, and the street beyond the glass doors was still quiet.

"Good, they aren't here yet. We better make this quick if we want to grab that necklace and be out of here before they show up."

"So let's go already," said Freddy, impatiently jabbing her in the ribs with one of his blades.

Felicity decided to ignore him as she darted around the corner and hurried for the bathroom. She paused at the door to glare at Freddy, who was still following far too close for her comfort. "You're not coming in," she informed him.

"And why the hell not? I'm the one with the weapon, or do I need to remind you of that again?"

"I don't need a weapon to get the necklace away from Kelly," muttered Felicity. "When she sees me, she'll probably freak out worse than Rowena did. Grabbing the necklace won't be hard if she's cowering on the floor."

"Probably not, but there's a quicker way," Freddy reminded her, waggling his blades at her.

"Oh, _now_ you offer to kill for me? Sorry, you blew your chance. This bitch is mine."

Freddy looked blankly at her for a moment before scowling fiercely. "Don't say that."

"What—bitch? Don't tell me a guy as shameless as you obviously are finds a mild expletive like that offensive."

"Hardly. It's my insult of choice."

"What, I'm not allowed to use it or something?"

"Exactly."

Felicity groaned and rolled her eyes skyward, giving up. "Fine. This_ beyotch _is mine. Better?"

"Much."

"Good. Now get lost. You aren't allowed in the girl's room anyway."

Felicity highly doubted that would stop him in the least, if he really wanted to come in, but he didn't follow as she shoved the door open and breezed inside.

Kelly was by one of the sinks, bent over and splashing water on her face. Her once neat and pretty dress was wrinkled and soiled, and her usually perfectly kept hair was tangled. Felicity strolled over and leaned against one of the stalls, waiting for the girl whose gossip had caused her so much grief during high school to notice her.

Kelly blotted her face with a paper towel and straightened. She stared at her sad, puffy face in the mirror for several seconds before she noticed the other person reflected in the glass.

The young cheerleader spun around with a terrified shriek that would have deafened an elephant. Wanting to silence her before she brought the entire student body running to her rescue, Felicity dove forward and tackled Kelly around the waist. Her shriek was cut off abruptly as her back cracked against the porcelain sink.

The two girls fell to the floor, and Felicity quickly rolled so Kelly was pinned beneath her. The bleached blonde barely put up a fight as she blubbered something, but Felicity ignored her. Her eyes were drawn to and held by the luminous blue stone hanging from Kelly's neck.

Felicity couldn't hear anything, but she felt a soft hum that penetrated her being down to her bones. Something tugged at her heart again, filling her with the same longing she felt earlier, only to a much greater degree. In that moment she wasn't aware of anything except that taking the necklace would solve all her current problems, and she grasped the large pendant without hesitation.

A sudden surge of energy that put the electric-like sphere to shame shot up Felicity's arm. Felicity automatically let go of the pendant and pulled away, clutching her arm and crying out as a pain like a mixture of molten heat and crackling electricity danced along her flesh. She vaguely saw Kelly scramble to her feet and flee the bathroom.

Very vaguely; the room was filling with a smoke-like haze. Felicity curled up on the floor and cried silent tears as she waited for the intense pain to fade. It took a lot longer than colliding with the sphere did, but the fiery pain eventually dulled and disappeared. Gasping, Felicity blinked open her teary eyes and slowly sat up.

She looked down and brushed ash and wisps of smoke from her arm, then held it up to inspect the damages. She couldn't believe what she saw.

The sleeve of her denim jacket was charred black almost to the elbow, and it crumbled like paper as she touched it. Felicity pushed the sleeve back as she tried to look at her arm, but there wasn't anything left to look at. Her skin, which had looked normal and healthy despite the absence of life only moments ago, was completely gone. It had been burned away, along with all the muscle and tissue beneath, until all that was left were her white bones.

Stunned and slightly sickened at the sight, Felicity held her skinless hand before her eyes and slowly wiggled her fingers. Despite the lack of tendons, the digits responded accordingly. Felicity wiggled them again, then made a fist. It felt funny, like her hand was still normal but encased in a tight, hard glove. The rounded bones at the base of her fingers felt like smooth stones.

She spread her fingers open again and waited for the flesh to regrow, just like it had done numerous times that evening, but nothing happened. She watched and waited, but no hint of flesh or tissue tried to creep back into place. Felicity pushed back her sleeve again and saw that her upper arm was normal. Just below the elbow her skin was black and burnt, where it then cut off and left her bones free and exposed.

Felicity poked at the burnt flesh, but it was no use. Her skin wasn't growing back. "I can't believe it," she said aloud. "I'm stuck like this. Could this night get any worse?"

She didn't want to think about that. All she wanted to think about now was how she could get the necklace away from Kelly.

"Maybe I can't touch it because I'm not alive," Felicity said with a sniff.

She got up and brushed herself off, feeling tired, frustrated, and more than ready for this night to be over. She wanted to go home and see her mother already.

"Or maybe," she added, brightening a little.

Maybe...it wouldn't come off because Kelly _was_ alive.

"I'll just have to fix that," Felicity said to herself as she pushed open the bathroom door.


	16. Chapter 16

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 15: Death of a Cheerleader**

Kelly knew she was hysterical again as she raced through the halls like a madwoman, but she didn't care. All she cared about now was escaping.

She didn't know if what she had just seen really happened, or if it had all been a trick played by her traumatized mind. She knew _something_ had attacked her, but she knew it couldn't really have been Felicity Masters. The tiny dancer was dead, she had watched her die with her own eyes. Maybe her own guilt and the shock of Craig's death was making her lose it, and lose it completely.

She didn't really want to stop and figure it out just now, and she continued to run, screaming and sobbing, through the school. She searched almost blindly for an exit in the dark, images of the safety of her home and family filling her mind and clouding her already hindered sight. Arms outstretched, she ran straight for a set of closed doors, hands out to shove one of them open by the horizontal handle.

The handle bent downward, but the door didn't budge, causing Kelly to crash into it. She recoiled, lost her balance and fell backwards. Instead of getting up again, she curled into a ball, hid her face in her hands and sobbed.

Maybe none of this was really happening. Maybe it was all just a bad dream, and maybe if she held still and wished hard enough, all of it would just go away.

* * *

Felicity pulled her damaged sleeve as far down as it would go before checking to see if the police had arrived yet.

The hallway was still empty, and there was no sign of any squad cards outside. Relieved, Felicity slunk along the wall, heading after Kelly. It wasn't hard to figure out where she was; Felicity could hear her blubbering from here.

Along the way, something caught her eye as the moonlight glinted off the glass. Felicity paused and studied the box hanging on the wall, possibilities swirling in her mind.

"Yes," she decided, stepping closer to the axe kept on hand in case of fire. "I think I'd like a weapon after all."

* * *

Kelly cried until her tears dried up and her throat felt tight and raw, but she continued to tremble and shake as though she were still sobbing. She wiped her hot face and sniffled pitifully, wondering why she couldn't wake up.

Though her mind was clouded with fear and grief, she was beginning to think that maybe she wasn't dreaming after all, and that she should get up and try to find another way out. She hadn't completely decided either way yet when an odd sound made her look up.

She couldn't hold back a screech of terror at the sight of the figure half-hidden in shadow standing at the other end of the hall. Kelly couldn't see her face, but there was no mistaking the diminutive Felicity Masters. The small girl was walking towards her with deliberate slowness, dragging something behind her that scraped noisily across the floor.

Kelly scrambled backwards until she was pressed against the locked door. Her mind was in a frenzy, her eyes darting everywhere for a way to escape this apparition. Kelly knew what she was seeing was impossible, and her tongue suddenly blurted the words her mind kept repeating over and over again.

"You're dead!"

He voice came out a tiny squeak. The apparition kept coming closer. Kelly still couldn't see her face, and the low, emotionless voice that rose up from the darkness made her skin crawl.

"You're right. I _am_ dead. All thanks to you, of course."

Kelly continued to press her back against the cold metal of the door as her mind continued to whirl. She had to escape somehow; maybe talking would buy her some time.

"I didn't kill you," she said, without thinking about it first.

"No," the apparition allowed. "_You_ didn't, but you watched it happen. What kept the five of you from talking about it afterward—a blood pact?"

Kelly felt sick as she remembered, unwillingly, the days that followed Felicity's death. They got together and discussed it, and they all decided it was best for everyone that no one ever told. If they did, all their lives would be over. No one broke that agreement—accept Kelly herself, who told Tanya the very next day, knowing she would never be able to keep such a secret from her best friend.

Felicity was staring at her, and Kelly was overcome with the strange feeling that she somehow knew what she was thinking.

"Tanya wasn't there, but I'm sure she knows all about it. Nice neighborhood we all live in...just full of kids who think murder is no big deal."

"It wasn't murder," Kelly insisted, crying again. "It was just an accident. We didn't mean--"

"An accident?" the apparition shrieked, so loudly her words echoed through the hall.

Kelly let out a frightened cry and instinctively cringed behind her arms.

"An accident," the Felicity ghost repeated. "Right. Your precious boyfriend _accidentally_ held me under the water, and I _accidentally_ drowned. You're really full of shit, you know that? You always have been."

The scraping sound suddenly stopped. Kelly peered over her arms and saw that the apparition was standing a mere foot away, gazing down at her. A thin strip of moonlight was illuminating her face. Kelly could scarcely believe her eyes; the younger girl looked exactly as she always had. Small, pale, and innocent.

But there was something else in her face now, something very dark. Her expression was blank and unreadable, but there was a storm of emotion in her eyes. They were narrowed and dark and so full of hate it made Kelly's throat constrict uncomfortably. She stared into those eyes, mesmerized, until movement made her look at the apparition's hands.

Felicity had been dragging something long and wooden, only now she held it in both hands. Kelly's eyes traveled the length of the object, until they rested on the flat piece of metal attached to the end of it.

Felicity was holding an axe.

_It's not real..._

"You're not real," Kelly shouted. Pulling up what was left of her courage and strength, she forced herself to her feet. "You're dead and gone—you're not really here! This is just a nightmare!"

Her words made Felicity laugh sharply. There was something odd about the way she laughed; it had a wild, unearthly sound to it. Kelly's terror returned with a vengeance.

Part of her still feared that all this was really happening, that Felicity Masters had somehow come back from the grave seeking revenge. What was left of her rational mind kept assuring her that this was impossible, that the only explanation for what she was seeing was that she was only dreaming, and in no real danger. Kelly wasn't sure what part of herself she should believe.

"It's just a nightmare," she repeated, heart pounding so wildly she couldn't distinguish one beat from another.

Felicity was spinning the axe in her hands, as if it were as harmless as a baseball bat. "You could be right," she suddenly said, her voice taking on the lighter tone Kelly was used to hearing. "Maybe none of this is really happening. Maybe I'm nothing more than an illusion, brought back for just one night. It's Halloween, after all...I'm sure your buddy Rowena knows all about how to tap into the supernatural energy of a night like this."

The strange words triggered a recent memory; she saw herself standing near the cafeteria earlier that night, right after Rowena had said something very similar. She looked at Tanya and they both knew they were thinking the same thing.

They were wishing that nothing had ever happened, and that Felicity was alive and with them again.

If she was really awake and all this was real, it seemed she got her wish. She really hoped she wasn't awake.

"I hadn't thought about it before," the small girl went on, mostly to herself, "but it's possible that all this is only temporary. And if it is..."

She stopped spinning the axe and clutched it in both hands. "I'm not letting this chance slip by."

_It isn't real_, Kelly told herself again as the blade of the axe glinted in the moonlight.

Things like this just didn't happen. Her scientific mind refused to accept it. But still...the sight of the axe blade being lifted above her head was enough to make her discard what she thought she knew and start begging for mercy.

"I swear, we never meant to hurt you," she cried, falling to knees and sobbing. "I've thought about it every day, and wished I could take it all back. I'm sorry about what happened. I am so, so sorry."

Felicity paused, axe still raised, and cocked her head as though she were considering something.

"I forgive you," she said, right before the axe fell.


	17. Chapter 17

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 16: The Alliance Continues**

Felicity again found herself thinking about her visit to her uncle's farm. She remembered all sorts of sights, sounds and smells, but the thing she remembered the most vividly was her aunt preparing a chicken for dinner that night.

The chicken was rendered immobile (letting it run around headless was foolish and damaged the meat, her aunt said) and it lay relatively still and calm, and the decapitation was swift and over with before either Felicity or the bird knew it. The mess and fuss didn't start until after the deed was done.

Decapitating Kelly was a surprisingly similar experience.

Kelly tried to duck at the last second, which only made Felicity's job easier. Her head flew away from her shoulders and Kelly fell on her stomach, where she lay twitching for several minutes.

The volume of blood was impressive; it squirted and gushed across the clean floor like water from a hose. Felicity knew she should be disgusted by the spectacle and ashamed of what she had just done, but the only thing concerning her was how she was going to clean everything up.

The blood continued to flow after Kelly's convulsions stopped, though it slowed and halted shortly after that. The blood stream extended several feet in front of the body, and another sloppy streak curved off to the side, made by Kelly's head when it had rolled.

It wound up propped upside-down against the wall, bleached hair spread out beneath it like a fan and half stained with red. Kelly's blue eyes were open, and so was her mouth, though the affect wasn't one of mortal terror so much as it looked confused.

Felicity snorted; even in death, Kelly still looked like a ditz.

Turning away from the upside-down head, Felicity nudged the body with her foot, flipping it over. The necklace was still hanging from the little stump of neck that remained. Felicity knelt, set the axe down and started to reach for it with her undamaged hand, then thought better of it. She gave her bony right hand a flex and reached out to tap a white forefinger against the blue stone.

She cringed and waited, but nothing happened. She tapped harder, then cupped the large pendant in her skinless palm. There was no pain, but she did feel a strange tingle rise up her arm.

A sense of relief was filling her core, as though the longing she had felt all night was finally being sated. The tingle spread through her entire body before fading, and suddenly, much like she could feel the emotions of the living, she could feel the shape of the sphere around her.

It was a strange ghost of a feeling, one she really had to concentrate on to hold, but it didn't really matter now that she didn't have to worry about keeping track of it anymore. With a sigh of relief, she lifted the pendant, wiped the blood off the chain and slipped it over her head. She felt a small shift as the sphere realigned itself by a few inches, making her its center instead of Kelly.

Felicity sighed again as she got to her feet. "That's much better."

She wouldn't have to worry about running into the borders of the sphere anymore, and she could go wherever she pleased. Though, as she moved away from Kelly's body and started back down the hall, it occurred to her that the other person stuck inside the sphere with her was just as poorly off as he was before.

Felicity didn't really care, and she didn't care if her movements were dragging him uncomfortably around, either. She was still sore about the incident with the locked door.

* * *

Remembering what Felicity said earlier, Freddy tried to stay within thirty feet of the bathroom door. He was bored and looking for something to do, but there wasn't anyone in sight—except the fat principal pacing the hallway near the front doors.

He was shaking like a leaf and muttering things like, "not supposed to happen it a small town like this", and, "don't know what I'm going to tell the wife". Freddy decided to ease his troubles by making him his first kill in the real world.

The middle-aged man was frightened and distracted, so sneaking up on him was absurdly easy. Freddy took a moment to consider how he was going to make his approach before reaching out and scratching his blades across a nearby locker.

The resulting screech made the balding man spin around with a startled squeak. His gaze faltered as he looked his future killer over, but then his features relaxed and looked tired.

"You shouldn't be out here. Go back and stay with the others until the police arrive."

Freddy made a mental note to stay in during Halloween from now on. "But I thought I could give you a hand," he said, drumming his blades against his shoulder. "With that spare tire you're carrying around, I mean. I bet I could shave off ten pounds, easy."

Now the round principal looked annoyed. "Not funny, young man. Stop fooling around and go back inside."

Freddy snorted out loud; counting all the years he'd been dead, he was willing to bet he was at least a decade older than this confused faculty member. At least.

_Never again_, he reminded himself.

Being mistaken for a masked trick-or-treater really ruined the enjoyment of making his victims terrified just by the sight of him. He preferred them to be out of their minds with fear when he struck, but the mixture of horror and puzzlement on the man's face as he slit open his fat belly was almost as satisfying.

* * *

Rowena paced near the cafeteria doors like a cat. The rest of the students were huddled together in groups, either standing around the room or sitting along the walls. Everyone looked tired and frightened, including Aaron and Tanya.

"What the hell is taking so long?" she muttered under her breath.

"Rowena, please try to keep calm," Tanya pleaded, for about the fifth time.

"I _am_ calm," Rowena snapped. "I'm probably the only calm one here."

"You looked pretty pissed to me," said Aaron, sounding tired and without his usual vim.

"So? Just because I'm pissed off doesn't mean I'm not calm. Isn't anyone else bothered by the fact that one of our friends was just murdered, and that while the police are taking their sweet time getting here, Kelly is out there by herself?"

Aaron and Tanya exchanged glances but said nothing. Rowena let out her breath in a huff.

"Fine. Stay here and cower if you want—I'm going to go find Kelly."

There were a few weak protests from her friends, but she ignored them as she shoved the doors open and stepped back out into the dark hallway.

* * *

Felicity replaced the lid of the bathroom garbage can with a bang. It had taken ages and all of the paper towels in both the girl's and boy's bathrooms, but she managed to clean up most of the blood. She also found some cleaning supplies the janitor used, which made the job easier. Only she ended up making a bigger mess when she dragged Kelly's body and head to the garbage can.

For the most part everything was sparkling and smelling fresh now, though, and it would probably be a while before the body was discovered. More than long enough for her to escape.

Felicity stepped back out into the hall, still holding the bloody axe. Now that she was free to go wherever she pleased, she wasn't really sure where she should head. She could hardly return to her old life now that she was dead.

Dead. Felicity still had trouble believing it. She also had trouble believing just how easily she had killed another human being. She closed her eyes and tried to feel remorseful, but she didn't.

And why should you? a tiny voice inside her asked.

Felicity knew why, but she was having trouble applying all the rules and morals she had been taught in life to herself. All those things only seemed to matter if you were alive. She was dead now, so what did any of those things matter? She was pretty sure Freddy, who had been dead for a long time, didn't follow any rules at all.

Felicity gave herself a shake, dispelling this dangerous line of thought. The last thing she wanted was to turn into something like him. Her mother taught her better than that.

"Mom," she whispered aloud.

She had to see her, just one last time. Her mother would be asleep at this hour; she could sneak in and out of her own home without anyone ever knowing.

She was still trying to build up the courage to walk out of the school when she felt a familiar tap on her shoulder.

"Penny for your thoughts? Or is that too high a price?"

Felicity held back a groan of annoyance and started to move away, then changed her mind and jabbed with the dull end of the axe. She was dead, so what did she care if she made him mad?

"I was just thinking about where I should go, now that I can go anywhere," she informed him coolly.

Freddy was rubbing his middle and looked ready to retaliate, but his angry expression faded rapidly. "So you killed her?" His eyes fell on the axe in her hand, still stained with Kelly's blood. "Not even dead a day, and already killing like a pro. Nice."

He sounded impressed. Oddly, his words made a smile tug at Felicity's lips. She felt pleased, as if she were a child again and proudly showing her mother her first time success at something as innocuous as tying her shoes.

Felicity shoved the feeling away in a hurry; she didn't need _his_ approval, and she definitely didn't need to feel proud of what she had done.

"I'm not making a habit of it," she said waspishly. "Kelly had it coming. That's all."

Freddy didn't look convinced. "But she didn't actually do anything to you, did she?"

"No," Felicity admitted. "Craig was the one who drowned me, but Kelly watched. So did the rest of her friends."

"What about them? Don't they have it coming, too?"

The question was asked so plainly and seriously Felicity felt unnerved, and she faltered as she answered. "No," she said slowly. "Aaron and Tanya are good kids, they just have bad taste in friends. And life itself is punishment enough for a freak like Rowena."

"You don't sound very sure about that. And didn't you tell me earlier to kill Rowena?"

His expression was too smug for Felicity's comfort. She turned away. "Oh, was that different?" asked Freddy, his voice full of challenge. "It's okay for me, but not you? Hate to break it to you, princess, but there's no difference between you and me. You're going to be around forever, and when you're around forever you get to make your own rules."

Felicity avoided his gaze; his words were dangerously close to what she had been thinking moments ago. "I'm _not_ going after them."

"Then why are you still holding that?"

Felicity looked down at the axe still clutched tightly in her hands. She was tempted to throw it away, but she chose not to.

"I might need it," she sighed. "We'll probably run into cops on the way out, and I really don't want to wind up in jail."

"Hey, that's your worry, not mine."

Freddy breezed by her with a chuckle. Felicity narrowed her eyes at him, wondering if his limbs would regrow if she suddenly hacked them off.

"It's your problem, too," she informed him smugly. "Like it or not, you're stuck with me, so you better make sure nothing happens to me."

Freddy glared at her over his shoulder. He looked annoyed and impatient, as if he were in a big hurry and was tired of all the interruptions. In a hurry to kill, Felicity assumed.

"I thought you said we were free to go anywhere now," he said, his impatience growing by the second.

Felicity remained calm and smug as she explained. "No, I said _I_ can go anywhere now. We're both still stuck in the sphere, but I can go where I like so long as I have this."

She tucked the axe under her arm, removed the blue pendant from where she had hid it in her shirt and cupped it in her left hand. Something dark flickered through Freddy's eyes, and she knew he was seriously pissed.

She expected him lop her hand off at the wrist or something, but he held back his violent impulses for the time being, though it looked like it wasn't easy for him. He held out his gloveless hand, his eyes cold and dangerous.

"Give it to me," he ordered, his voice harsh and very low.

Even though she knew he couldn't really hurt her, Felicity felt a chill dance up her spine. Despite her apprehension, she gave her head a defiant toss.

"And let you drag me around from here to only God knows where? No thank you."

"I'm not asking again."

Felicity let go of the pendant and let it dangle from her neck. She felt good for some reason; the weight of the necklace was comforting, like a security blanket, but it didn't please her as much as knowing that she had one up on someone who was much more powerful and dangerous than she was.

"You're welcome to try and take it," she offered. "But I'll be nice and warn you—this is what happened to me when I tried taking it while Kelly was still alive."

As she spoke, she held up her right hand and wiggled her bony fingers in the air. The bones looked even whiter than before, almost glowing in the moonlight. "That happened quite a while ago, but as you can see, it isn't going away. I don't think it ever will. But hey," she went with a grin, "you can still try your luck if it's that important to you. Use your weapon hand while you're at it...maybe it will shrivel up into a leathery lump, and you'll have to go around bludgeoning people instead of stabbing them."

Freddy was staring hard at the stone hanging from her neck, and for a moment she thought he was going to test her sincerity and grab it anyway, but his eyes drifted over her right hand again. He didn't reach out.

"But think about this," Felicity said quickly, before he changed his mind or started throwing a violent fit. "You have a thing for ditching reality and playing around in dreams, right? I'm pretty sure this thing is anchored to the real world, so I bet if you did your disappearing act while wearing it, it wouldn't follow you. And always having to go back for it would get annoying, especially if someone else found it in between time."

Judging by the look on his face, he had no problem with this idea, it was his inability to get what he wanted by force that had him so upset. He couldn't take the necklace, she wasn't about to hand it over willingly, and he couldn't kill her, since she was already dead. Like it or not, he was stuck like this.

Felicity smiled at him, though she wasn't sure why she was trying to reassure him. "But don't worry, I'm not going to deliberately make your life--or unlife--miserable. I'll try not to bounce you around too much, and I'll follow you wherever you want to go. And I..."

She was about to say that she would rather stick with him than go it alone, but she quickly thought better of it. "I haven't anything else to do. And unlike you, I'm not cruel. Wherever you want to go, I'll go. I really don't care."

The undead killer was studying her warily, as if he didn't quite believe she was really being so generous. "Just don't get in my way," he finally said. "And don't ever interrupt me when I'm busy killing."

"I wouldn't think of it. Really, I wouldn't; I'm getting a little tired of your poking."

Freddy smirked at this. "Don't expect me to stop."

"Yeah, I figured that would be asking too much..."

"A small price to pay when _I'm_ the one being lead around like a dog on a leash."

"Fair enough. Shall we shake on it?"

Felicity started to extend her right hand, then withdrew it and held out her left. "You're supposed to use your right," Freddy reminded her, tapping a blade against his palm.

"I don't have any skin left and you're still wearing _that_ thing. Besides, aren't we making our own rules?"

Freddy chuckled, sounding genuinely amused. "Good point."

After sharing a left-handed shake, the two of them walked back to the front of the school together.


	18. Chapter 18

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 17: A Deadly Need**

The police arrived shortly after Rowena left the cafeteria. She ducked into a nearby classroom and watched them from a distance; there were only four and they split into two groups, with half of them heading into the cafeteria to question the students and the other half leaving to search the school.

Knowing she shouldn't make any noise, Rowena held back a frustrated sigh. This was the trouble with living in such a quiet neighborhood; the cops never knew how to handle it when something really bad happened. One of her best friends had been brutally murdered and the culprit was either another student or someone hiding inside the school, though either one was probably long gone by now.

Two cops had little chance of finding anything important by themselves. She waited until they were out of sight before slipping out of the classroom and following them. Keeping to the shadows, she followed them upstairs, realizing they were heading right for Craig's body. Rowena felt a flutter of disappointment; she had wanted to see it before anyone else did. She had never seen a real dead body before, up close and within touching distance.

The young witch pushed the thought away. There was no time for that now. It wasn't just a body—it was Craig, one of her best friends. Still...

She couldn't help wondering how she would feel if she saw him now.

Rowena quickly ducked into another classroom as the cops suddenly emerged from the basketball court. To her surprise they weren't alone; two men dressed like paramedics were with them. She hadn't known they were there, but they had obviously arrived before the cops did. One of them was pushing a gurney covered in a sheet. The unmistakable shape of a human body was beneath the white cloth.

The man dressed in white pushed the gurney past her hiding place while his companion wrote something down on a clipboard. Rowena received another surprise as a third man appeared and followed after them, pushing another gurney.

* * *

"Any brilliant suggestions?" Felicity asked dryly as she peeked around the corner at the school's foyer for the second time that night.

Flashing blue and red lights could be seen through the main doors of the school, and several policemen were moving around the main hallway. As she watched, more and more kept showing up, until she had lost track of just how many there were. She was guessing there were around ten, but that wasn't counting the ones who had moved to another part of the school.

"I wonder where Adds Well disappeared to," she said after she noticed that the principal was nowhere in sight.

She glanced over her shoulder at Freddy, who said nothing, but the smug smile on his face was answer enough. "Don't forget, if I get caught and dragged away, you'll get dragged with me," she reminded him.

"I didn't forget," Freddy hissed under his breath.

"Just making sure."

Felicity peeked around the corner again. The cops were speaking in hushed tones to each other and taking notes. There were less of them than a few moments ago, probably in the cafeteria. Felicity wondered just how long it would take them to search the school and interrogate the entire student body.

"Do you think we should just forget this and look for another way out?" she whispered.

There were plenty of other exits, but Felicity knew they would be locked at this time of night, even though there were students on the premises. Finding one and figuring something out still seemed like a better idea than waiting for a chance to slip by unnoticed.

Felicity was about to repeat her question when a new pair of officers joined the group already milling about the hallway. Behind them were men dressed in white, the one in front pushing along a sheet-covered gurney. Felicity wasn't sorry, but there was still something chilling about the sight, especially when she noticed that a large amount of dark fluid was slowly soaking through the white sheet.

_Craig_, she thought silently.

An officer peeked beneath the sheet and didn't react to whatever lay underneath it, except for his Adam's apple bobbing up and down. Another officer, whom Felicity was getting the impression was the one in charge of the current situation, was giving instructions to the others.

Seeing that they were all distracted, Felicity decided now was a good time to find another escape route. She turned around to nudge Freddy into motion, only to discover that he had once again vanished from sight.

_Great..._

Irritated, Felicity turned back to peek at the cops. A few other paramedics had joined the first group while she wasn't looking, and they had another gurney with them.

Felicity felt a tiny jolt; they sure found Kelly fast.

Only, she slowly realized as she watched the men wheel the gurney by and leave it beside the other, it couldn't possibly be Kelly. The gurney was covered, but the shape of the human form beneath it was still visible. And it was over a foot shorter than the leggy cheerleader.

Felicity felt such a wave of horror as realization hit her it left her dizzy. She grabbed the corner of the wall, expecting to topple right off her unsteady legs, but they were firmer than they should have been.

"Where did you find this one?" the officer with the commanding presence asked.

"We found her when we were doing our sweep of the upstairs," another officer replied. "There was some construction of some kind going on in the pool room and we thought something about it looked suspicious. We took part of the new wall out and there she was. Looks like she's been there for quite some time."

The other officer took a peek beneath this new sheet. This time he frowned before setting it back in place. "Finish searching, then meet us back here. The rest of you, come with me."

The officers on the search went back to work, and the rest followed the officer in command into the cafeteria. In a matter of moments, the hallway was empty and silent.

The lights had been switched on since the cops arrived, but the light wasn't at all comforting as Felicity left her hiding place. Barely aware she was dragging the axe behind her, she shuffled towards the second gurney like she was walking through a dream.

As unbelievable as it was, she knew what she would find under the sheet, but she still felt like she needed to look. She expected her exposed bones to shake and clatter as she lifted her hand, but it was still and steady. Her insides felt tightly clenched, as if every inch of herself was braced, but she didn't feel much else. It was as if all her senses had switched off, so she could get through this moment without losing it. She imagined if she were still alive, she would have been in hysterics by now.

_If I were still alive, I wouldn't need to do this_, she reminded herself dryly.

She gripped the edge of the sheet and drew it back until the corpse was exposed to the neck. She didn't bother drawing it lower; what little was exposed was horrible enough.

It was Felicity's own face, though she hardly felt like she were looking in a mirror. Her skin, which had been pale enough when she was alive, was a sickly mixture of white and blue. The thin flesh beneath her eyes was sunken in and purple. Her hair, once blond and wispy, lay in thick, slimy clumps and looked like it was growing mold. There was a strong smell of decaying flesh.

Felicity covered her mouth and took a step back, knowing she was about to be sick. She closed her eyes and waited for the nausea to come, but it never did. Her dead body was probably incapable of vomiting. Opening her eyes again, Felicity felt sharply displaced. Part of her was moving around while part of her was still and rotting.

She wondered just what she should do about it. The cops would eventually figure out who she was; would the mystery of what happened to her then be solved? Would the remaining teens responsible have to pay for their crime via man's law?

Felicity was still mulling it over when she heard footsteps. Tearing her gaze from her own macabre face, she ran to the safety of the nearest shadow. It wasn't a very good hiding place, but she still had an axe in her hands, if need arose.

As the person approaching came into view, Felicity knew in an instant that she would be using it. A gray skirt waved around shapely legs, long ebony hair fanned out behind her like an airy veil. She was heading for the cafeteria, but the second she spotted the gurneys, Rowena stopped in her tracks.

Felicity cringed, her beatless heart growing tight in her chest. _Go for Craig_, she silently pleaded.

But she had left herself exposed while Craig was still covered, and the sight was just too much for Rowena to pass by. Felicity could practically see the carefully constructed walls Rowena placed around herself crumbling, the rules and restrictions slipping away. There were no boundaries for what she now wanted; male or female, young or old, none of it mattered. A corpse was a corpse, nothing more, nothing else.

Felicity gripped the handle of the axe so tightly she thought it would break in half as Rowena reached out and touched her former self's face. The morbid fascination and desire in her eyes was too much for her to take.

As she sprung from her hiding place, Felicity forgot about being quiet. She forgot about the cops that were mere feet away, the students who were in many ways just as guilty as Rowena, even her own words minutes ago about not wanting to harm anyone else. All she was aware of was the axe in her hands, and the girl she kept chopping at with it.

Rowena didn't stop screaming until after the tenth or twelve chop. Felicity wasn't sure--she eventually lost count. The young girl only vaguely noticed that the screams didn't stop even after Rowena was physically incapable of ever making another noise. The sound of mortal cries of terror echoed in her ears like a litany for her actions. It wasn't until Rowena was an unrecognizable mess of flesh and fluid did Felicity finally stop.

Her moment of rage-fueled passion gone, she stared blankly down at what she had just done. She was going to need a lot more than bathroom paper towels to clean _this_ mess up, not to mention her clothes.

A thumping sound made her look up. Freddy was coming out of the cafeteria, which was now eerily silent. "We can go now," he informed her casually.

Felicity looked down at the mess at her feet again. Freddy looked, too, and gave her the thumbs up.

"Is it safe?" she wondered, sounding as numb as she felt.

"No one is left to see us leave, if that's what you mean."

Knowing more cops would eventually show up when the ones at the school didn't come back or report in, Felicity quickly set the axe down on the bloody floor. Her eyes were drawn back to her own body again.

Freddy was looking, too. "You don't make a very cute corpse," he observed.

"No," Felicity smirked, amused in spite of herself. "But I make a much better-looking restless spirit than you do."

"You think I'm gorgeous. Admit it."

Instead of taking the bait and getting into another argument, Felicity looked down at the axe again. "Do you think I leave fingerprints?"

Freddy frowned and glanced at his own fingers, as if the idea had never occurred to him before. His were in such bad shape, she doubted he had to worry about it.

Not wanting to take any chances, Felicity knelt and used a clean part of Rowena's skirt to wipe the handle of the axe clean. Straightening, she went over and covered her own corpse's face again. "I was thinking about getting rid of myself somehow, so I could remain an unsolved mystery forever, but my mother deserves to know. I don't want her to wonder for the rest of her life if I might still be alive."

She said this mostly to herself, knowing that Freddy wouldn't really care. She also knew he wouldn't care to stop by her mother's house, but as Felicity left the school and stepped out into the cool, moist air of the night, that was exactly where she planned to go.


	19. Chapter 19

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Circle of Death

**Chapter 18: Future of the Damned**

To say that his current situation had Freddy displeased was a gross understatement, but when he considered how the night could have gone, he decided things could still be worse.

Ordinarily when he was in the real world he wound up dead in a matter of minutes, but hours had already passed since he first awoke. It was already past midnight, marking the end of Halloween night and the beginning of November 1st. The start of a new month, one full of possibilities never open to him before.

Having someone tagging along (he refused to admit to himself that it was actually the reverse) wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Felicity wasn't delusional like most teens her age, and if her actions that night meant anything, she was a brutal killer in the making. She could deny it all she pleased, but he had seen the look in her eyes. She enjoyed it too much to stop, no matter what she had been taught in life.

He was anxious to see how quickly she would find another weapon and more victims, as well as anxious to find more for himself—but right now he had to wait while the silly girl said goodbye to her mother.

He had objected, of course, but Felicity insisted this was something she needed to do before they left. He didn't need to watch, she had told him, and added that the sphere was about fifty feet around. Now knowing that he didn't have to follow at her heels 24/7, he gladly waited outside the small, powder blue house. He waited for now, but having to move around at her behest was something he meant to change as soon as possible.

Of course, he realized after he had waited for what he considered a completely reasonable amount of time; she did have control over where he went, but she still had no control whatsoever over what he did or didn't do.

And if she didn't come out in less than ten seconds, he was going in and slitting her mother's throat, just to make sure she understood that he wasn't someone she could dick around with.

* * *

Felicity sat in the middle of her own living room floor, surrounded by furniture covered in sheets. The entire house had an oddly sterile smell, and she was pretty sure the electricity had been turned off.

Behind her, she vaguely heard the sound of the front door opening. She didn't bother looking; she knew it was Freddy. She didn't have to sense it to know he was probably mad at her again, and rightly so, but she still couldn't bring herself to get up from the white carpet. She stayed where she was, her eyes glued to the picture frame in her hands.

It was a professional photograph of a woman nearing her forties, with light brown hair and pale blue eyes. She wasn't young, but Felicity knew a lot of people thought she was a knockout.

"She's gone," Felicity heard herself say. She knew he wouldn't care, but she kept on talking. Saying it out loud made it easier to accept. "She died two months after I did. There wasn't much detail in the obituary I found, but she probably stayed up day and night worrying about me. She had never been physically strong..."

Felicity had felt like crying several times hat night, but this time she let the tears form and fall. She set the picture down with a sniff. "What do I do now?"

The question was a rhetorical one, but Freddy answered it. "You even need to ask? You started something tonight, and there's no reason you shouldn't continue."

Felicity wiped her eyes and glared at him, disgusted. "I told you before, I'm not going to kill anyone else. I shouldn't even have killed _them_, I just..."

She trailed off, knowing there really wasn't any excuse for what she had done. "I wanted to avenge my own death," she said lamely. "No one else was going to."

"They deserved it, like you said," Freddy declared, unconcerned. "They all did."

"Not everyone is guilty like that," Felicity murmured.

"Everyone is guilty of something."

That was true, but...

Felicity shook her head. "I can't. I feel guilty enough as it is."

She carefully returned the photo to the end table, her eyes gazing at her mother's own. Behind her, Freddy snorted. "You sure don't _look_ guilty."

Felicity didn't reply. He was right; she only said that because she hoped it would make it true. But she didn't feel any guilt of any kind over what she had done, or over the loss of nearly everyone she used to go to school with. In life she would have been paralyzed with remorse, but in death....none of it seemed to matter anymore.

"I'm not doing it again," she repeated, firm to the end.

"You better make up your mind quick," Freddy told her, and she could tell by his tone that he had run out of patience. "You know as well as I do that I wouldn't be anywhere near you right now if I could help it. And since you insist on being the one calling the shots here, I suggest you make things easier on us both and come up with something we can both live with."

Felicity waited until the door banged shut before standing up. She took one last long look at her mother's picture before turning away from it, and from her childhood home. She didn't look back as she opened the door and stepped outside. She didn't look back as she closed the door and walked away from her home, either; she didn't want to be reminded of what she once was, and what she was leaving behind forever.


End file.
